I know not all of you may even remember little ole' Angus Wong but nonetheless you are all a very dear part of who I am today and I am sincere in saying I am very happy to have found our cozy class again. I remember almost all of your names well and have good recollection of those formative years of our youth. I have been told I have a good memory and would love to share some of these snippets with you because literally there is nobody else in this world that can appreciate these recollections:
* We did a skit or a play of some sort acting as bees, and had our mothers sew yellow ribbons onto black T-shirts; unfortunately when we brought them back, Mr Lowe said that the edges weren't done properly and were frayed; the ribbons should have been sewn with the edges tucked in.
* In the photo that Audrey had sent out, there were a couple of skits (seems like we did a lot of skits eh?) wherein one of them had a toilet with a sign "TO_LET" and the "I" had ostentatiously dropped off. The joke was a couple thought it was a nice place to rent until the caretaker came by to replace the missing letter.
* In another part of that same skit, I played an Egyptian mummy (you can see the "bandages" on me in the photo) and appeared when a couple of kids in bed called out for their "Mummy." ("That's not my mummy?!")
* Mr Lowe frequently asked us random quiz questions on "current events," one of which was "Who is the Peanut Farmer?" The answer, of course, was US President Carter. However, Anil Mohan next to me insisted it was the Planter's peanut mascot.
Now before I get onto what I have been up to, I have a lifelong question that has sort of intrigued me. During final year we had an election of sorts for Class Prefects. I was actually elected as one. Honestly, at the time I know I was not the most popular kid around, so I am quite curious WHICH OF YOU voted for me?
OK, enough of these time capsules. A personal recap is in order:
After BHS, I went onto KGV much like most of you; I stayed only until Form 2 then went to Cambridge (UK) for boarding school. About a year into that, while I was crossing the highway from the residence to the school proper, a motorcycle crashed into me. Now I was around 10 or 11 at the time. I still remember that moment vividly. The bike actually careened across the road with bits of metal flying about. My shoes had exploded off my feet, as had my school bag. Papers were floating around and there were horrified onlookers. Amazingly, I came out of that with nary a scratch (well, maybe a couple of minor nicks on the hands) even though witnesses said I did a triple somersault. The bike was totaled. I was rushed to hospital but was discharged with a clean bill of health.
After that accident my parents got quite worried and retrieved me back to Hong Kong where I essentially finished up "High School" at the Hong Kong International School. The important point here was I completely lost my British accent and adopted an American mien.
My family left in 1984 and immigrated to Canada. I spent the rest of my youth in Toronto, finishing high-school and going onto university. It was not until that period of my life, around age 16, that I suppose I turned a corner. It might be analogous to my experience at Beacon Hill, where I know I did badly as a student all the way until Mr Lowe's class, and then "surprised" him by excelling in some sort of final year test, coming out at the top of the class. I say this not to boast but to point out that I actually fit the stereotype of the quiet achiever kid who nobody understood. This came to be a kind of theme for me in later life. I did badly in the first years of university and then later graduated on the Dean's list. Similar in business, I did all sorts of jobs in various industries and didn't really start becoming "successful" until years on. On the social front, as mentioned age 16 was a turning point for me. Suffice to say, I suddenly shot up in height and along with that my social stature. You may remember me as a short, skinny quiet kid. Well, I am still skinny unfortunately, but have grown much taller and (for better or worse) much less quiet. Surprisingly, my late teen years saw me as the "go-to" man for parties in Toronto. In a nutshell I practically owned the social scene during those glory years so you can imagine the huge contrast this was between my quiet youth and my later lifestyle.
My early years in BHS had sensitized me to the trials and tribulations of children during those important years. I have always been an advocate of education reform and am pleased to see the world, at least most of the developed parts of it, have progressed in how we administer education to children. To quote Churchill: "I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught." For my particular learnings in university, I actually wrote a book for students to help them navigate the challenges of the "blackboard jungle." That book became something of a minor cult classic and even today some of my readers email me from around the world. It's definitely not something you would have heard of. All very subculturish and such, so the title doesn't matter here.
As for business, it's almost a cliche to say that I was one of those geeky computer kids (I was already programming computers in 1978 actually) who ended up later working in the computer industry. After working with Intel, for example, I moved over to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area ("Silicon Valley") during the heydays of the "dotcom" boom. It was a real blast, especially since I love wilderness backpacking and spent many frigid nights in the beautiful Sierra mountains of California. I later moved to live in Singapore where I was one of the "bosses" for an up and coming technology company (I named it "EdgeMatrix" -- it was a bit of a sensation in Singapore during that time, not least being the first founder ending up with drug charges; fortunately I left way before the ignoble end).
I still work in the technology sector these days, more in the business development and marketing side. I fancy myself as a sort of business consultant now and have a couple of irons in the fire with various partners and clients. However that's not really my core work now. I've been trading the stock market over the years (and think that I've just about got it right, finally...). I also occasionally write for computer publications and if any of you use a Macintosh you might inadvertently come across my industry ramblings with regards to Apple and such.
Not married yet but happily engaged (and just recently too). After a slew of "true loves" over the decades I am pretty sure this is the real one (so he says again! haha!). But in all seriousness, I do expect to get hitched in 2008 (location undecided yet) and currently have a reasonably comfortable and quiet home life with my fiancee and my computer systems.
