the balestier hill gang

if we were to join teaching later, say in the 90s, i wonder if we would have stuck together. those days, in the 70s, teaching afforded us a lot of time to do things together after school, meaning after 1.00 p.m.

so, although we went our different ways after balestier hill secondary, we still remain in contact because of the bond we had built after spending so much time together inside and outside of the school. we did things like hitch-hiking, going on holiday, staying in holiday chalets and having picnics as colleagues and friends.

thai soon gave up his civil servant status when he joined nanyang junior colleage as a pe teacher. kwan went to bedok south secondary, nah went to woodsville sec (which merged with macpherson secondary in 2004), betty nah and tye thong went to bendemeer secondary, kok weng went to henderson, then to nanyang girls, northland and north vista and i went from balestier to ghim moh, monk's hill and admiralty primary.

all of us, except lay bee and gee peng, have retired and all of us retired before we reached our 60th birthday. among us, only thai soon, the oldest, is still gainfully employed. he coaches canoeing and dragon-boat racing. another person who is still working is doris. she retired in 2006 and went back to henry park as a flexi-adjunct teacher.

we had dinner at pine court in meritus mandarin as lay bee has a 50% discount coupon which had to be used because of the expiry date.