Candle 11: Noor Ashikin Ishak

Continuing with our Project Kindle series, here's a letter from Noor - who is searching for her classmates from the Class of 1977. If you'd like to get in touch, please send me an email at joannayeoh@gmail.com.

Hi Joanna

I once did a ‘shout’ on your blog. You responded by suggesting that I should 'write' instead. Not sure where to start. Guess I'll just have to introduce myself…

I am Noor Ashikin Ishak and I was in BBGS from 1973 to 1977. During that time, “remove classes” were still around. I was not a brilliant student, neither was I popular in school. Here are some of my memories:-

• I used to try to “ponteng” the weekly Maclay’s house practices and got myself woken up by the librarian.
• I tried to be polite to Ms Cooke one afternoon, by wishing her “Good afternoon” and got caught instead for my untidy (already) short hair! She did follow-up with me the next day, to see if I did something to have more decent hair!
• My favourite teacher was Mrs Lian (class teacher of Special Remove Class 1).
• My classmates in the third form (3 L),1975 includes Celia Foong (the famous model). Together with a few other girls, we went to watch few movies of the “WINNER” a HK/Taiwan band group.

My years in BBGS were the most interesting years of my teenage life. I appreciate the values that BBGS tried to instill. I have always been proud to be part of BBGS.

I am still in touch with few of my schoolmates. I will try to get them to write too.

Finally, like any other, I wish to get in touch with my old schoolmates. Hopefully, there are few, if not many, out there who recognise me.

Thank you for your initiative in keeping BBGS alive!

Noor

Looking for Leong Kit Lan

Announcing the launch of Lost and Found - another service community project for this blog. This is inspired by emails from girls who are looking for their long lost friends. So if you can help someone re-connect, do a good deed today by leaving a comment or sending me an email. We start today with a note from Christine Goh, who's looking for Leong Kit Lan.

Update on 2 August 2009

Hi Joanna,
Just to let you know that someone saw the post in the L & F section and told Kit Lan about it. We're now reconnected. Thanks so much! - Christine

Hi, Joanna,

My name is Christine Goh and I came upon your contact details when I was looking for a long lost friend. Her name is Leong Kit Lan, the BBGS school captain of 1977. We went to University Malaya together and were very good friends. When she left for Canada to complete her undergarduate studies, we eventually lost contact.

I remembered she was from BBGSKL and so after failing to get anything from Google and Facebook, I decided to try the BBGS blog. Would you happen to have Kit Lan's details? I'd appreciate it very much if you coud send me some information of her, as a group of us (her old 'gang') would love to get in touch with her again after all these years.

Thanks.
Christine

Candle 10: Moira Ainun

Hooray..we're got 10 candles lit to remember BBGS! This story and pictures were sent in by Moira Ainun, who started up a quarterly reunion gathering for classmates from her batch. Knowing how much work goes into planning reunions, I take my hat off to her. That's what we call commitment - enjoy her tale...

It all started with a Standard 6 class photo brought by May Yee to my Raya Open House last year. Both of us tried to recall as many girls as we could. All excited, we thought of how wonderful it would be to catch up with these girls. Since both May Yee and I met on Facebook and contacted quite a few girls from there, we started a group for our batch (called BBGS batch 1974) and began arrangements to meet up.

Our first meet was on 16 November 2008, a week before I was due to deliver my 3rd child. Although only ten girls turned up, it was great catching up. It was a nice trip down memory lane talking about what we bought in the canteen, the teachers as well as finding out more about other schoolmates. Old friendships were re-kindled and some new ones made (especially for me since I left in Form 1) Realising that there are quite a few girls are in our batch, we decided to hold meet ups every other month to allow more girls to meet up and catch up. Two more meets have happened since the first meet, one on 28th December 08 and another on the 15th of February 09. Although the groups have been small so far we hope that more girls will join our coming meets. We have scheduled another meet this April, June (two schoolmates that are in the US will be in Malaysia then), September and December.

Candle 9: Cheong May Yee

A friend dropped by for coffee last night, and she is none other than Cheong May Yee from the class of 1991. She is also fondly remembered as Minah Bunga or The Flower Girl because her family owns and operates My Fair Lady - the famous florist shop in KL. Today, May Yee has taken over the flower shop and is a successful business owner. She is married to an entrepreneur and they have a beautiful 20-month old son.

May Yee (in black) was delighted to find a copy of the 1991 school magazine at Joanna's place

The tete-a-tete lasted way past midnight especially after May Yee found a copy of her yearbook in Joanna's collection. She was tickled pink by photos of herself in the St. John's Ambulance uniform, teachers and other classmates as well. We caught up about each other's lives and told dozens of silly stories. So did her class always win the Floral Arrangement shield? Of course they did, at least once a month :-)

After that confession, May Yee agreed to extend a 20% discount to all BBGSians who would like to buy bouquets & arrangements from My Fair Lady. Contact her at mayyee28@yahoo.com and mention the school motto.

So there you have it, the first product tie-in for this blog. Any other girls want to offer products or services to fellow BBGSians? Just write in and let me know.

Candle 8: Poesy Liang

Poesy Liang has been described as the "girl who just wouldn't give up".

Her Wikipedia entry is equally inspiring : Founder of Helping Angels. A Malaysian-Taiwanese artist, writer, poet, architectural interior designer, jeweller, entrepreneur, philanthropist and television personality who survived 3 spinal surgeries and battled paralysis caused by a rare case of benign tumour that kept recurring within her spinal cord.

With her supermodel looks and a resume like that, you would think that she was the "perfect BBGS girl". Here's a candid account of her years at BB.

Hi Joanna,

It seems that I missed the teachers reunion in Lake Club! Wish I had known about it as I really want to thank all the teachers who taught me. There is one particular teacher in primary school 1 (6BIRU) whom I want to find, for giving me confidence in my artwork back when I was a very unsure kid in Standard 6. Her name is GE Tan (I think), can you help me locate her since you are in the loop with everyone else. My other favourite is Betsy Li who signed all my sick leave (I was not very attentive in class and was always looking for valid excuses to get out of school, there were numerous reasons) and I assured her that I'd get a distinction for Prinsip of Akauns!

Of course, I have many many fond memories of school or not being in school.. the teachers, the school grounds, the school cats, the times I got away with mischief and the times I got caught.. I am not sure how to start and where to start..

How did my little story reach you? I am perpetually amazed where my life events are bringing me and am truly honoured to be asked (let alone recognised) to be part of old BBGS!! Back then I always felt kinda voiceless.. I was and still am quite the loner!

I was quite oblivious in school as towards Form 3 -5, I had only 50% attendance. It drove my class teacher mad while I was in 3S as she has never experienced a student so unfit to be in her class. Mrs. Mak I believe, she called me at home one time at 11am and I picked up the phone in half daze. I asked her what's wrong and she flipped, it was my SRP home science practical exams that day and it completely slipped my mind. She had to tell me what I was supposed to cook and was so upset that in the end, she rescheduled me with 3A on the very last day of the practical exam. I cooked Char Kuey Teow for the first time and barely passed!!

While the rest of the 3S class were full of very studious girls and had the most number of prefects (including the junior head), so several times when I got reported for playing truant or late, it was because my own classmates had turned me in too. It was crazy how I got through it. I used to slip out of classes when I did not like a subject and take a cab home. Sometimes I would come in for just 2 subjects. Out of pure madness I even went to my friends school in her uniform and attended some classes with her in the international school, until today some kids from GIS think I was their ex-classmate!! I am not a very good example in my school days so I am not sure if these stories are really that worth posting. It was only after I got tired of my life in the tv industry that I starting to get really serious about studying and started with the MBA and then the LLB. Throughout architectural school, I was hardly attending classes.

Maybe it was because I started in TV at 14 and found that paper accolades were not important. However when I left TV (after 12 years), I became a strong advocate of education and I wanted to pass on the message to young teenage girls out there that the dream of being on TV is an empty one without the back-up of education and practical skills. One ends up attracting the wrong things in life. I believe I was lucky and that my experience of paralysis at age 17 was a blessing because it gave me a spiritual experience that pulled me out of depression in my early 20s. Pulling myself out of the entertainment industry and putting myself back in school was part of the process of helping myself.

Joanna says: I love Poesy's story because it proves that BBGS taught us timeless values and produced outstanding young women - regardless of whether we were models or rebels at school. Just look at what Poesy has done with her life and the impact she has on the lives of others. I look forward to receiving more of these inspiring stories for Project Kindle.

Update: Poesy is offering BBGSians special prices for her jewellery designs. Check out her website.