Received a caning Witnessed by the entire school My whole world crumbled.

About half a century has elapsed since I last read an Agatha Christie novel.  I was in Form One or Form Two at Kai Chung Middle School in Binatang when I read my first Agatha Christie novel. After such a long lapse, I did not know what to expect when I first started reading Death in the Clouds. According to ...

I had my primary school education at St Augustine’s Primary School in Binatang. It was a Roman Catholic mission school and English was the medium of instruction. Chinese was a subject that I studied but I did not like Chinese lessons as I found Chinese difficult, especially writing in Chinese. My Chinese teacher was Mr Hsieh who knew my parents ...

I was born in a very small town but for the past 35 years, I have called Miri my home. The small-town boy in me never truly goes away. Time and again, I am caught up in nostalgia whenever I recall my childhood days in Binatang (now known as Bintangor). The recent sale of my dad’s shophouse in Bintangor has ...

I am a lucky guy! Lucky to have been born in Sarawak, the Land of the Hornbills where there had never been a need for 1Malaysia to instill racial harmony among the people. Laidback, peaceful and beautiful. Lucky to have spent the first seventeen years of my life in Binatang (now Bintangor). Yes, the Animal Town where everybody seemed to ...

It is sad to hear the news that Omar Sharif has died aged 83 from a heart attack yesterday afternoon in a hospital in Cairo. It was announced in May that he had Alzheimer’s disease. I was in lower secondary at Kai Chung Middle School in Binatang when I watched Lawrence of Arabia at the Eastern Theatre and that was ...

It was 1970.  Thirty seven students from St Augustine’s Primary School and Council Town School were placed in Form One B at Kai Chung Middle School with Ms Constance Yii Mei Ho as the form teacher. The class was as a mirthful bunch, earning the dubious reputation as the noisiest class in the school that year. There were of course ...

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. – Richard Steele, Tatler, 1710 It was during my primary school days at St Augustine’s Primary School in Binatang that I picked up reading as a hobby. I devoured books by Enid Blyton and immersed myself in the world of the Famous Five and Secret Seven. I would drop ...

Like Regina Brett in her book “God Never Blinks”, I sometimes felt that at the moment I was born, God must have blinked and thus missed the occasion, unaware of my birth at all. I felt like the poet who wrote that he was born on a day God called in sick. Shortly after my birth almost 55 years ago ...

Facebook is a great tool for social networking and I’ve enjoyed catching up with old friends. Many people who have had near-death experiences say that they saw their lives flash right before their eyes. Well, this is a bit like how I’ve felt when it comes to my Facebook encounters. Thanks to this site, I’ve reconnected with people whom I ...