Singles

Christine was studying nursing in England in 1966. At that time, I was studying mechanical engineering at Swinburne Tech in Melbourne, on the other side of the world. By right, our chances of meeting and getting to know one another was exceedingly small. However, in 1973, we were both working for Brunei Shell Petroleum company in Seria (BSP).

In 1972, she starting her first job working as a staff nurse at Pahang Consolidated tin mines in Sungei Lembing, near Kuantan. I started work with Sarawak Shell Bhd in Lutong. They sent me for in-service training in BSP for 2 years. In 1973, I was staying at the bachelor flats at F12, Seria. Christine was staying at the Panaga nurse's quarters next door at F11. We were close neighbours!

Alice Chee, a mutual friend introduced us! Christine was educated in a Chinese medium school in Malaya. She completed nurses training in England. I went to an English medium mission school in Sarawak. Christine is Shanghai-ghese. I am a Hakka ngin.We communicated mostly in Mandarin, Cantonese and English; some times a mixture of all three!

Engagement

After a year's courtship in Brunei, we became engaged to be married.

wedding

We were married on 13th Sept. 1975 at the St. Joseph's cathedral in Miri. Formal wedding photos were taken later in Kuantan. We have been together for over 35 years! Our children are now all grown up and left the nest in Hamilton. Christine and I are   experiencing empty nest syndrome, just like most of our friends of about the same age. Many of them are retired from full time jobs. Some are fully occupied by grand children, baby sitting or sending them to school or sporting activities.

First born, Kevin

Kevin arrived on 10th Dec 1976. I was working offshore as a wireline operator for SSB, servicing all the wells in West Lutong, Baram and Baronia. Christine was working as a nurse, at the Shell Lutong clinic. We employed a full time nanny to look after our son.

At first we were staying at a company provided house in Miri. It was a semi-D, 2 brm wooden bungalow, which was quite adequate for a small family. Later we moved to a similar house near the Lutong cinema, so that Christine did not have to commute from Miri, daily.

Pearl

Our daughter, Pearl arrived on 9th Jan 1978.

Eugene, makes 3!

Eugene arrived on 12th April 1979. The year before, in 1978, I arranged for a transfer to work in drilling dept as a trainee driller and was immediately upgraded to JG8.

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The growing up years

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When the children came, we made it a point to communicate mostly in Mandarin at home. This was intended to give them more exposure in our mother tongue. The schools in Malaysia were stressing on the national language: Malay (Bahasa Malaysia). We have planned to send our children to overseas universities when they complete their high school. English tuitions were also arranged beside  swimming and tennis lessons. The idea was to give my children a wider exposure to sports and a multi lingual education.

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*One of the biggest decision that Christine and I had to make in our lives, was in 1995. Kevin was finishing his fifth form that year and plans have to be made for furthering his university education overseas.We decided that moving the family to New Zealand was the cheapest way to educate 3 children. The timing was perfect because the company, Shell, was winding down its operations and offering older employees like us, very good redundancy packages. It was now or never for us.

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Just the two of us

Lupines at Lake Wanaka

These are wild Lupines growing on the shores of Lake Wanaka. We didn't even know that they were there until we saw them. They are supposed to have come all the way from the Alps in Switzerland.

Mt. Taranaki

This is Mt. Taranaki, near New Plymouth where my nephew, Albert Chow is staying. One day, Christine and I took a very leisurely drive from Hamilton. Along the way, we took photos at the rest stops. At one of them I saw a familiar sight, a 24 in Reed rock bit!

This photo was taken by Eugene. We were on our way to North Shore to see his new house when we saw this empty picture frame at a park.

Franz Josep Glacier

One year, we toured the South Island with Kevin and Pearl. Eugene was unable to come because he has to get his practical experience for his mechanical engineering course. He worked in a carpet factory in Christchurch, crawling inside heat exchangers to clean them.

This vineyard is on Waiheke Island. Pearl took us there during one x'mas holidays.

This was taken on top of a small hill near Pearl's house in Wellington

 The Beehive is the house of parliament in Wellington.

This is Raglan beach. We went there for a one day trip.

On top of One Tree hill in Auckland. By the time Christine arrived, they have removed the tree!

On the desert road, near Mt. Ngaruhoe. This was taken by Eugene.

This is Bucklands beach. It was very cold that day when Eugene showed us around the area where he went for practicing his drifting.

This is Tien An-men, Beijing, the front of the forbidden city. Standing there made me think of my roots. Two generations ago, my grandfather left Kwangtung province and went to Sabah to seek his fortune.

Deep inside the forbidden city where the concubines of the emperor used to live. Nowadays it is open to the public and tourists.

I put on some costumes to take a photo as the emperor of China. Christine wore some concubine costumes. It was all free. At other places, you have to hire them for 50RMB

Chengdu was 6 degrees C in the morning. I was dressed in 4 layers. We were going for a boat ride on a lake this morning. Many of our tour members were not dressed warm enough because they were told that Chengdu was warm in summer!

This was taken at a place called tian-shan in Kuching. The temple was built from money received from public donations.

This photo was taken on the overpass connecting the Miri district council public car park to the open air market. Very often we have met many old friends on this pedestrian bridge.

We have missed our flight from Kuching yesterday and is booked on waiting list to go back to NZ tonight, giving us an extra day shopping in KL.

Anduki beach looked very nice but there was hardly anyone around because it was too warm.

On this occasion, we were in Auckland to witness Kevin receiving his citizenship certificate from the mayor. He took this step because as a kiwi he can go to work in Australia without need to apply for a work permit.

That means we could visit the Gold Coast at a very cheap rate because the major part of any travelling expenditure is always for the hotel accommodation.

Most of the beaches here are man made. The ocean currents continuously move the sand away. The Spit is the place where a pump is used to move the sand back on to the beaches at Surfer's Paradise.

Surfer's Paradise is a very popular tourist destination. Christine and I have made 3 visits there so far. We probably will not visit there again because Kevin has moved to Brisbane.

This was taken at the Queen Charlotte track at the Marlborough Sounds. Because of the cooler weather, it was not a very difficult walk.

Tramping in Blemheim

On the ferry at Picton

Waiting for the ferry

Bath house, Rotorua

Mt. Eden for a panoramic view of Auckland sky line.
There was also a volcano crater right behind where we were standing.

Huka Falls, Taupo

Top of a hill in Blenheim

At the farm

This horse seems very friendly to strangers. He belongs to Derrick's parents who are running a horse tracking business on their farm in Blenheim. They have about 20 horses on their farm. Rob was a truck driver in Europe for many years.

Pearl took us tramping on the Abel Tasman track. It was warm and quite an easy 5 hr walk to the water taxi which took us back to the starting point. We rented a house which was quite comfortable.

The movie set at Wuxi was quite a huge place. We got a lot of exercise just by walking around there.

This is the Bund, which was made famous by movies produced by Shaw Bros in Hong Kong. I have heard about the place so many times that I cannot ever forget the name. One thing is for sure. I have never expected to see the real 上海灘,  in my life time and yet, here I was, with Christine. I do not think that it is likely that we will make a 3rd visit to China, any time soon.