Brother Albinus was my school principle at Sacred Heart Secondary School up to Form three. I knew him before I became a student of Sacred Heart. I used to see him playing tennis and coaching the rugby players through the corridor of my house. When I was a kid, me and my neighbourhood freinds trespassed the school and we outrun him when he tried to catch us.
When I became the student of Sacred Heart, he became my head master. He is a very special principle and he had changed a lot of people life. As a boy school, a lot of the students are rebelious and without the dicipline introduced by Brother Albinus, many of us will end up as gangsters.
There is an assembly every day before the school start and Brother Albinus will give a speech in English. Mr.Chee will translate his speech to Chinese. The fascinating event in his speech was his ability to identify the students "fooling around" in town after school hours. Those students who was identified would be warned or canned and if persistent will be expelled from the school. I still don't understand how he is able to do that.
What I knew during the wonder year was "Brother Albinus is watching over me and I better behave myself". This is particular true whenever I did something I was not suppose to do like whispering to my classmate while the teacher is teaching. He will appear immediately at the window outside the classroom or from the corridor of the opposite block with his finger pointing to me. He was able to walk without noise and appear whenever we did somthing wrong.
How he is able to do that remains a legend and mystery to the boys of SHS. What he introduced to us and moulded us is the dicipline. We came back to the library at 2pm in the afternoon after our morning session to study until 4:30pm. Then we have to participate in the sporting activities at the school field. At 7pm sharp, after our dinner, we came back to the school classrooms or library to continue with our self revision and homework until 9:45pm. These diciplines kept SHS the top school in Sarawak both academically and in sport. During the after official school time in school doing self study, Brother Albinus is again watching over us and will appear whenever we did something wrong. However we have already accepted the dicipline and really enjoy staying in the school. I have to acknowledge that the self study class after school hours have changed the life of a lot of SHS students and most of them are the leaders in their respective professional field.
After every examination, Brother Albinus will visit each class. The students who failed to make progress will be asked to line up. Then start the canning section. This is the most fearful event of SHS boys.
I respect Brother Albinus commitment and sacrify during his time in SHS. He worked from early morning until midnight in policing his boys and ensure his boys were doing the right thing to excel. SHS with a student population of 2000 is a big school and the special attention he provided to each of his student is second to their parents.
Brother Albinus is a servant of God who sows the good seeds in the field and may God continuos to bless him.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Parafield Gardens Primary School
This morning I tried to find out the use of public transport to my future house at Parafield Gardens. The reason of doing so is to assess whether it is necessary to get a second car. Car is not expensive in Australia but if taking into account the petrol and maintenance it could be a hugh sum to have an additional car.
I started by taking a train at the Railway Station. The train took about 20 minutes to reach the Parafield Railway Station which is 20 minutes away from the city. I have to walk for approximately 15 minutes to reach the house.
I then tried the route to Parafield Primary School where my children will be studying. The trip is less than 15 minutes by walking. But walikng under the sun of a hot summer day for 15 minutes or 30 minutes round trip could be very exhausting. In addition, winter will be rainy and windy. I think initially I will ask my wife to drop me at the railway station so that I could go to work by train and then a connecting bus. She can then drive the children to school and doing some shopping or other business using the car.
Roll and Roll Sushi
This suhsi shop at North Terrace opposite the Railway station is operated by a Korean couple. This is the best shusi that I have ever tasted. Each slice of the shusi contains crab stick, a piece of shasimi and lots of fish roes. It is so finely wrapped and rolled compared to other shusi. The shusi is really a piece of art and the taste is the best ever I tasted even better than the shusi in Japan. The price is surprising reasonable as 4 pieces only sell for less than $4.00.
The holes in the fence of SHS
I lived just next to the school beside the tennis court. I could see the teacher teaching. The advantage of living next to the tennis court was I collected a bucket full of tennis balls. I did not recall that there was any incident that the tennis ball broke any window of my house.
Before I was a student of SHS, I studied at Rejang Park Primay School. SHS football fields have been the paradise for the neighbourhood kids although we were not yet SHS students. We reported to the field every afternoon at 2pm and we have to leave at 4pm before the real students of SHS occupied the field.
We entered the field as trespassers. SHS was heavily guided by prefects and how we could enter the compound so easily? The answer was there were holes in the chain link fencing just next to my house.
There were a lot of activities where me and my mates from the neighbourhood do in the field. We caught fish in the small stream, swimming in the lake in front of the scout house, playing ball and flying kites at the field. As trespassers, there is one thing we have to be fast. We have to run faster than Brother Albinus. When he noticed we were there, he will run towards us and try to catch us. Our mate who noticed him will shout " Ah Pai lai liew! " then we will run and disappear by escaping through the holes at the fence. None of us was caught by Brother Albinus as we always out performing him.
When I became a student of SHS, I entered the school through these holes. Again the area of the tennis court and squash court are heavily guarded by prefects but most of them are neighbourhood boys who also entered the school through the holes. That's why we never get caught. The holes in the fence helped us in never getting late to the school and we are the first one to reach home after school.
The holes in the fence never repaired until one day, a big hall was built at the old tennis court site. Then there was a big guarded gate replacing the small holes at the chain link fencing.
My parents still keep the house and the house is now leased to SHS teacher.
Before I was a student of SHS, I studied at Rejang Park Primay School. SHS football fields have been the paradise for the neighbourhood kids although we were not yet SHS students. We reported to the field every afternoon at 2pm and we have to leave at 4pm before the real students of SHS occupied the field.
We entered the field as trespassers. SHS was heavily guided by prefects and how we could enter the compound so easily? The answer was there were holes in the chain link fencing just next to my house.
There were a lot of activities where me and my mates from the neighbourhood do in the field. We caught fish in the small stream, swimming in the lake in front of the scout house, playing ball and flying kites at the field. As trespassers, there is one thing we have to be fast. We have to run faster than Brother Albinus. When he noticed we were there, he will run towards us and try to catch us. Our mate who noticed him will shout " Ah Pai lai liew! " then we will run and disappear by escaping through the holes at the fence. None of us was caught by Brother Albinus as we always out performing him.
When I became a student of SHS, I entered the school through these holes. Again the area of the tennis court and squash court are heavily guarded by prefects but most of them are neighbourhood boys who also entered the school through the holes. That's why we never get caught. The holes in the fence helped us in never getting late to the school and we are the first one to reach home after school.
The holes in the fence never repaired until one day, a big hall was built at the old tennis court site. Then there was a big guarded gate replacing the small holes at the chain link fencing.
My parents still keep the house and the house is now leased to SHS teacher.
My first arrival in Adelaide
While I was still in Form 5, I was offered to study in a public school in Canberra where there is no school fee and also I have an enrolment in a private college in Adelaide. I checked around my class and found that nobody is going to Canberra. The closest will be John Wong and Alex Chieng in Sydney. Alex Tiong, Anthony Lai and Ah Poh is coming to Adelaide. Hence, don't wanted to be left along in Canberra, I came to Adelaide.
My first arrival in Adelaide is sometime on February 1989 before Chinese New Year. Alex's father send us to Singapore and from there onwards we will embark a new journey of our life. We stayed at Golden Landmark hotel. We have a few happy days in Singapore touring and shopping. I remembered when we bought some winter wear, the shop keepers thought that we are from China.
We are received by Anthony's relative in Adelaide. The flight is at night and by the time we arrived, we are all exhausted. We slept for the whole day. The first shopping centre that we visited was Castle Plaza. We searched around for somthing to eat and found everything is so expensive and there was no RM2 Kam Pua mee. A plate of rice with three choices of food will cost $6.00. That's was RM12 at that time. We walked around the shopping centre and found out the cheapest food is barbeque chicken. It costed $4.00 for a whole chicken. So each of us bought one chicken and that's our meal of the day.
After the initial stay, me and Alex parted with Anthony as we studied in different colleges. Alex and I rented a room each in a double storey wooden house at the suburb of Parkside where we could catch a bus to our college at Springfield. Springfield is a very expensive suburb and there is no room to rent there as all the houses are big mansions. We stayed at first floor and our land lady Mrs Fuss live downstair. Sooner we discovered that Mrs Fuss is really fussy. We learned to walk quietly otherwise we will receive a phone call from Mrs Fuss that there are few elephants dancing upstair. We also have to keep the house clean as Mrs Fuss will come anytime for inspection.
Adelaide is the place where I grow up. I learned to cook and shopping whcih was previously my mum job. I also deal with bank and government on all issues concerning my visa and account. I bought my fisrt car and obtianed my first Visa card at the age of 18. In short, I learned to live independently in Adelaide.
This article is an exception as there is no photo. I will update my blog again if I could snap some good photos today.
My first arrival in Adelaide is sometime on February 1989 before Chinese New Year. Alex's father send us to Singapore and from there onwards we will embark a new journey of our life. We stayed at Golden Landmark hotel. We have a few happy days in Singapore touring and shopping. I remembered when we bought some winter wear, the shop keepers thought that we are from China.
We are received by Anthony's relative in Adelaide. The flight is at night and by the time we arrived, we are all exhausted. We slept for the whole day. The first shopping centre that we visited was Castle Plaza. We searched around for somthing to eat and found everything is so expensive and there was no RM2 Kam Pua mee. A plate of rice with three choices of food will cost $6.00. That's was RM12 at that time. We walked around the shopping centre and found out the cheapest food is barbeque chicken. It costed $4.00 for a whole chicken. So each of us bought one chicken and that's our meal of the day.
After the initial stay, me and Alex parted with Anthony as we studied in different colleges. Alex and I rented a room each in a double storey wooden house at the suburb of Parkside where we could catch a bus to our college at Springfield. Springfield is a very expensive suburb and there is no room to rent there as all the houses are big mansions. We stayed at first floor and our land lady Mrs Fuss live downstair. Sooner we discovered that Mrs Fuss is really fussy. We learned to walk quietly otherwise we will receive a phone call from Mrs Fuss that there are few elephants dancing upstair. We also have to keep the house clean as Mrs Fuss will come anytime for inspection.
Adelaide is the place where I grow up. I learned to cook and shopping whcih was previously my mum job. I also deal with bank and government on all issues concerning my visa and account. I bought my fisrt car and obtianed my first Visa card at the age of 18. In short, I learned to live independently in Adelaide.
This article is an exception as there is no photo. I will update my blog again if I could snap some good photos today.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
