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This section contains articles submitted by classmates of 1964
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前排七夕, Thomas 及 Henry 對節日都有感而發, 發乜呢? 發詞興囉. 齊齊奉上靚詞一兩首, 比我哋班64同學欣賞. Anthony 潘漢雄亦寄來兩首詩, 佢上個月行山頂遇大雨, 太平山下非常之'蒙蒙查', 想起目前香港政治環境一片灰暗, 故又係有感而發啫.
Henry 胡國亨:
We always wanted to see Prague as we heard a lot about it over the years but for various reasons, we did not get to go until this year when we were to go to a cruise to Iceland and Norway. Since we were already in Europe, we made a little detour prior to going on the ship. Everyone thought it was one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and we were not disappointed. It probably helped when we had perfect weather the four days we were there and we picked a very centrally located hotel where we could walk everywhere.
Iceland was not in our radar for travel plans even a few years ago. The first time it really came to our attention was when they had their bank crisis in 2008 and then the two volcanic eruptions in 2010 made world news. We even spent a restless night in Milan then as we were due to fly via London back to Toronto the next day but the volcanic ashes were playing havoc again and there was threat that the English airports might yet close for the second time. In hindsight, the Icelanders thought the eruptions were a classic example of “blessing in disguise” because people started to take notice of them and the natural disaster put Iceland on the map. Today, tourism became the number 2 industry right after fishing and the economy for this island country with 320,000 people is bouncing back.
While not too many people will be interested to visit Iceland in the winter when the days are really short and the snow season can run from September to June in some areas, seeing it in the summer can be very pleasant. Midnight sun, active volcanoes, craters, lava fields, glaciers, waterfalls, hot springs and geysers are not sights found everywhere. Since sixty per cent of its population reside in the capital, Reykjavik, in the south west, the rest of the country is just miles and miles of unique and expansive landscape. Spending leisurely time roaming the country makes a good and relaxing holiday.
戴錦池及太太Nancy訪加, 我哋班64同學又有藉口擦一餐. 七月九号喺楓林閣食晚飯, 真係貴人出門招風雨, 當晚出門時狂風暴雨, 但不阻我哋招呼貴人嘅盛意, 有十七人參加, 濟濟一堂, 好鬼熱鬧.
以下是當晚所影圖片, 我哋班64同學頻頻出鏡, 故不另行介紹啦
THE ARSE END OF THE WORLD
An ex-Prime Minister of Australia had colourfully described Australia as situated at the arse end of the world. This is not a respectful way to refer to the country he loves dearly but most Australian would agree with him when it comes to traveling overseas from Australia. It will easily take up to 26 hours in total if one includes the arrival at the airport from one end of the journey to another and the transit time midway for refueling. Given a chance, most Australians would spend more than 4 weeks abroad to maximise the time away from the country. Anything less than 3 weeks will not be a worthwhile exercise. A couple from Adelaide whom we acquainted in the second half of our tour would have spent 10 weeks in total by the time they arrive home. Similar Magdalen and I would have spent 7 weeks overseas by the time we arrive Sydney in early June.
BARCELONA
Just as we have allowed 3 days in Venice before we embarked on our cruise ship, we have earmarked the same number of days to tour Barcelona before we took the train to Madrid to join our land-tour of Spain and Portugal. We had high expectations of what we could get out of the Catalon capital and we were not disappointed. When the pier shuttle dropped us off at the start of the main pedestrian street, La Ramblas, the city had just woken up in the morning of May 11. It was a Saturday and the part pedestrian, part two single one-way lane vehicular street was beginning to fill up with people and traffic after a late Friday night - early 4 AM Saturday party. The locals came to the market to shop for fresh fish, fruits, grocers and vegetables and the tourists were lining up for their tapas, beer, wine and drinks. There were restaurants and ice cream stalls as well as artists and painters drawing portraits and caricatures for visitors as well as street performers posing either as statures, jugglers or clowns and musicians of all kinds busking for money along the one and a half kilometre pedestrian street. In fact, the street was complete with an 18th century opera house and a castle which houses a museum with many side streets that make the tourist lost in a wonderland. We quickly left our luggage at our hotel just off the main street and joined in the crowd, taking video clips of every aspect of the rustle and bustle of the street.
A SECOND BITE OF THE CHERRY
In April and May this year, my wife and I took our second trip from Sydney which crossed the hemispheres from south to north and east to west crossing the globe cutting across the South Pacific all the way to the North Atlantic in London. Our first trip was made 19 years ago when we took our children except for the older son who was in University from Sydney to Beijing and then made an 'excursion' from Beijing to London to begin our 9 countries land tour of the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Vatican, France and back to London, Beijing and Sydney. Even in today's jet speed travel, it would have taken a whole day for the journey but we were wiser this time and traveled both ways with a break in Hong Kong to get rid of the jet lag.
Our experience this time was more rewarding too as we have become more seasoned travelers. We have covered cities more thoroughly and learned a lot about many nationalities and cultures than last time even though the walking tours were quite tiring with our advancing age but we have found that more things do get better in age as we have become more knowledgeable. Including Hong Kong and China, we have covered 11 countries this time, transversing Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Vatican, France, Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and the UK. By the time we arrive Sydney we have spent just over 7 weeks so we weren't rushed around like we were almost two decades ago and had time to digest what we saw along the way.
Philip Lee had a tea lunch with Anthony, Thomas and Canice while he was in Hong Kong recently. Three alumni of Class 63 also turned up at the congregation: Lo Hon Bor, Lawrence Tseung and Walter Lai who joined in the Class 64 reunion because Philip was unable to meet them on a separate date...
One received from Tommy Lam (林穎源) Vancouver. "We had a small "yum cha" gathering in Vancouver for chit chat on Apr 11 2013. It was nice to meet KK Cheung after 50 years & Anthony Poon 3 years I believe."
From left to right:Tommy Lam 林穎源, Anthony Poon 潘漢雄, Cheung, Kwok Kwong 張國光, Lawrence Chan 陳宏業
One received from Raymond Ng 吳寶鑑, a phote taken with Peter Liu 廖文豪 in Lanzarote, Canary Islands during Raymond's recent cruise holiday. "What an experience to be able to meet a school mate in a small island in the Atlantics after 49 years. I spent a couple of hours to lunch with him in a small restaurant reminiscing our old school days."
From Left to right: Raymond Ng 吳寶鑑, Peter Liu 廖文豪
Edmund Ho 何建宇 is in town (Hong Kong) and that's a good excuse for the Hong Kong 64ers to get together again. On Friday April 5 they had tea lunch at 雅樂軒 CityView Hotel, Waterloo Road. Here are the photos taken...
Left to Right (photo below): 陸慶奇, 陳明生, 麥振芳, 伍傑忠, 張慶, 胡國亨, 梁世達, 何建宇, 洪德仁
