Candle 37: A Song to Sing

I received a delightful gift in my inbox this morning from Carolyn Joan Lau (Class of 1981), which she'd like to share with all BBGSians. Carolyn is a landscape designer based in KL, who found a pre-Independence songbook that was used by schoolkids in colonial Malaya, containing the origins of our beloved School Song. Curious to find out more..read on! Thanks for sharing, Carolyn...


Dear Joanna

Here is something to add to the Back2BBGS blog, more so for you younger ones. (Joanna says: Thanks for the compliment, Carolyn. It's been ages since anyone described me as young!)

I found this old song book in an old Ipoh junk shop. The cover is as old as my generation - hope we're weathering better than this book!

There are so many odd songs in it that us older girls used to sing in primary school - with Mrs Singham at the piano (Pri 1) - that we can never shake out of our heads. School concerts were such a blast - done properly - and so much fun.

More importantly, do note that our school song was adapted from "Land of Our Birth" (words by Rudyard Kipling). Many schoolkids in the Federation of Malaya, and later Malaysia were singing this!

Candle 36: Allyn Rabiah Seddek

Another BBGSian in the news...and why not? This time, it's Allyn Rabiah Seddek (Class of 1987) who was featured recently as a successful entrepreneur running a Thai Restaurant and premium gifts business. We were from the same graduating year, and she playfully asked me if I remembered her as the "naughty one". I most certainly do, and congratulations girl...way to go!

Sands of Time

I've been researching BBGS history for many years and would just like to clear the misconception that we're the oldest school in Malaysia. We're NOT. The chronological order for the founding of premier Malaysian schools is:

Penang Free School - 1815

St Xavier's Institution, Penang - 1825
(which my father attended)

Treacher Methodist Girls' School, Taiping - 1889
(which Miss Yeap Gaik Khoon and my grandmother attended!)

Bukit Bintang Girls' School, KL - 1893
(which my mother, my sister and I attended)

Victoria Institution, KL - 1893

Methodist Girls' School, KL - 1896

Methodist Boys' School, KL - 1897

Convent Bukit Nanas, KL - 1899

St John's Institution, KL - 1904


...but that still makes us the oldest girls' school in Selangor :-)

I Bet That BBGS and SBU can get 10000 fans before any school

Score as of Tue 6 April 2010, 5:00pm

BBGS/SBU 3734
CBN 3288
St John's 3085
VI 3296

GO...GO...GO!!!

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Dear Friends,

Something strange has been happening on Facebook in the last week. I've been seeing friends pledge loyalty to their schools en masse: CBN, St John's, VI, BBGS/SBU

Curiosity got the better of me today and I looked up the Facebook Fan site after receiving my 5th invitation. And I was immediately hooked! How can we resist the temptation of showing CBNers that the rivalry is alive and kicking.

So go to --> I Bet That BBGS and SBU can get 10000 fans before any school

BBGS DYNAMITE DON"T PLAY WITH DYNAMITE...YAY...YAY...YAY!

Love,
Joanna