Tonight, once again, was our quarterly dinner at Shang Palace. This dinner group started some 5 to 6 years back. We all had served in the ACS Old Boys Association Management Committee at different points in time but we got to know each other and became friends. Victor Chia was President from 1998 to 2000, Chelva Rajah was President from 2000 to 2004, Ang Peng Tiam was President from 2004 to 2008 and Benson Puah was President from 2008 to 2012.Jen Howe was the treasurer for some of the years. Mildred Tan was a committee member for a while and I served as the Secretary for all the 4 Presidents.
We are not from the same cohort in school and I didn’t them until I worked with them in the Committee. Having worked together, we became friends over the years. I cannot now remember the impetus for making this a regular dinner session. Neither can I recall how the people in this group came to be identified or who picked them.
I started serving in the Management Committee in 1992. I was asked to join by David Wong. Other than David, I didn’t know anyone else in the committee. All of them were much older. David was the Vice President. He held the fort for 2 years from 1992 to 1994 and then handed it to Noris Ong, his classmate.
Noris Ong was the first President I served. A wonderful man and I have very fond memories of him. He had worked in London and was one of the youngest partners in Coopers and Lybrand, a prestigious accounting firm. He was talented. He could sing well with a lovely low voice and play the guitar. He was a Nominated MP for a while. He was generous and would take out the entire committee for dinner at the Tangling Club, where he was a committee member, after our meetings. He would pick me up from my home and we went to football games at the National Stadium and for supper. He would send me back although he wasn’t living near my place. We went on a yacht, owned by Coopers, a few times. I have been to his home many times, knew his wife Betty and his 2 young boys. We also went to karaoke a few times because he loved singing. Around 1995, the Barings episode happened and Coopers was unfortunately dragged into law suits here in the UK later. It eventually ceased to exist as a firm and was absorbed by Price Waterhouse. I think Noris, who was the head of tax at Coopers, didn’t fit into the Price Waterhouse culture and he retired soon after. We grew apart in the early 2000s. I didn’t see him or speak to him for sometime. We then started talking again around 2007 when he called me and wanted my advise on a community project he was involved in. In 2008 I met him and his wife at an ACS dinner. He was seated at a different table. At that dinner Ang Peng Tiam, an oncologist, was describing symptoms of colon cancer. For some reason Noris became concerned and immediately went for a scope. He was diagnosed with a stage 3 or 4 colon cancer. He survived a year and passed away in August the following year in 2009 when he was just 60. Sad.
We each take turns to host our current dinner. We talk about anything that has happened to us, Singapore or in the world. Something to look forward to. Let’s see how long we keep it going
Tonight’s Shang dinner was hosted by 4 of us who had said that Kamala Harris would win the US election. By now we know the results and we had to host the ones who picked Donald Trump.
A picture of the very first Management Committee I served in the ACS OBA.
daily musings 
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