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The friendships that had been extended to me during my 6 weeks away from Sydney were so genuine and touching that I want to tell the world that I'm the most lucky person in the world. It feel so good that when you have friends who care for you and look after your interest. So far I have mentioned 9 friends: Tommy and Winnie, Bor and Susan, Lola and Gary, Tony and Mabel and Sidney who had made me feel welcomed and helped me in the first leg of our vacation. You will hear me mention many more friends who had warmed my heart and touched my soul with their friendship, especially Godfrey Lam and his wife Martha.
I was in Hong Kong to visit my mother who was 93 before I set out for my travels. While in Hong Kong, Magdalen and I did a dance demo/talk in a school hall attended by about 20 dance enthusiasts organised by my friend, Martha Lam who was a former work colleague. Her husband, Godfrey, is an eye surgeon whom I have met in Sydney 25 years ago. We had lunch together before the dance demo and almost casually I mentioned my vision problems relating to my recent cataract surgery. Without anyone prompting Godfrey knew that I needed remedial surgery so he suggested that I should see him for consultation. Because his schedule was so tight he had to sacrifice his lunch time in order to see me on Wednesday. On Friday, he carried out the remedial surgery necessary to re-adjust my cataracts. I have included the following letter of gratitude which I sent to Godfrey:
The idea of a Canadian vacation was first canvassed when Tommy Lam Wing Yuen pointed out with a sense of pride that Vancouver continued to reign as the best city in the world to live in and that other Canadian cities such as Calgary and Edmonton were also on the top 10 list! Intrigued by the statistics, I thought it was time to visit the Western Hemisphere from Downunder. It would be nice, I thought, if we could repeat what we did last year and go for a vacation after the South Pacific Championship in early October and then fly straight to Toronto for the reunion.
I began to press Cecil Li and Tommy for a definite date for the October reunion and went about costing the Canadian trip. As it turned out the reunion was scheduled on October 2 and the South Pacific championship was going to be run a weekend later on October 6. As my dancing form was going well in 2012 we couldn't really not go to the championship, so another gap in our dance calendar had to be found for our annual holiday.
Philip & Magdalen Lee paid a visit to Vancouver in May 2012. Gregory Yu Dad/Melanie, Lawrence Chan Wang Yip & Tommy Lam Wing Yuen/Winnie joined for a welcome dinner on May 17, 2012 followed by a karaoke night in Gregory & Melanie's home. A wonderful night for all great singers!
Cecil Li (李兆鏗) is in Hong Kong. Yesterday (22nd May) Ernest Ng ( 伍傑忠) arranged a welcome dinner at his Kowloon Tsai club and here is what Ernest had to say of this mini reunion dinner party,
“Cecil is visiting HK. We got together yesterday and had dinner at Kowloon Tsai Club. We talked about the silly things from the old days. For example it was I who gave Canice Mak his nick name Maidenfong. Also Dennis mentioned 無乃紀良妻 from our Chinese book; I think it was about you (Dominic 景良)”
As shown in the photo, they are 颜啟康, 張慶, 洪德仁
梁世達, 麥振芳, 伍傑忠, 李兆鏗, 黄智明, 陸慶奇
While visiting in Hong Kong in April, Magdalen and Philip Lee presented a demo/talk of their excellent dancing technique to friends. Wah Yan alumni in Hong Kong were invited too.
Here is Philip’s description on how it went:
“The dance/demo went smoothly. The venue was the school hall of the very prestigious Peak School on Hong Kong Island. It was quite big so we were able to dance the choreographies of each style of dancing. We demonstrated each of the 5 dances first to show the character of each style and then went through some basic steps of each style. We combined theory with practice by calling upon the audience to take part in working out the actions of some figures. Magdalen and I took turns to explain the basic techniques in establishing a ballroom hold, transference of weight and movement in action. We divided the men from the ladies with me working on the men steps and Magdalen working on ladies steps. Some of the people present had some experience in ballroom dancing but most did not, so it was quite challenging to keep everybody interested and happy for nearly 4 hours non-step. We managed to go through the 5 styles of ballroom dancing: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep as well as 3 New Vogue dances: Swing Waltz, Barclay Blues and Tango Terrific. By the end of the session most people were exhausted and complained about sore knees and ankles but I think they had thoroughly enjoyed the dance demo/talk.”
After winning a major dancing competition on 25th March in Sydney, Magdalen & Philip Lee won big again. This time it was the Jupiter National Championship in Gold Coast on 7th and 8th of April. As Anthony Poon puts it “… indeed new milestones in their dancing endeavors; they are the Australian's honour, the Chinese honour, and to crown all the WYK's honour”
Here is what Philip said after the event:
After spending a week in Sedona, we headed south to Tucson for more leisure time. Tucson is situated at the edge of the Sonora Desert, which stretches a long way into Mexico and also westward into parts of California. Northerners come to Tucson during the winter months to soak up some rays and to enjoy the warm and dry climate. We were in Tucson last year; we liked it so much that we decided to return. Our timeshare casita was at the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Every morning, I took my coffee out to the balcony and watched the sun rise over the mountain top - quite a pleasant way to start the day. You can always sit by the pool or play a round of golf if you just want to relax. However, there is a lot more to do and see in Tucson and its vicinity than you would think otherwise. Here are my top ten picks. They are in no particular order, although the selections are likely to be biased by my own interest.
Sedona in Arizona is famous for its red rock formations. These are massive outcroppings of sandstone and limestone which have been sculpted to interesting shapes through eons of weathering. The iron oxide in the rock gives it a brilliant rustic color, especially when the sun hits it at the perfect angle. If you enter Sedona via the southern route (i.e. in the direction from Phoenix), the approach is truly breathtaking. The rock formations have names like Courthouse, Bell, Cathedral, Snoopy, Coffeepot, etc. You can use your imagination to enjoy what nature has created. We visited Sedona in March of 2012. Although we had been here a few times before, we love to return when we can.
The landscape in Sedona is a heaven for hikers. There are over 100 marked trails of various lengths and difficulties. No matter which one you pick, you have a good chance of catching a changing view of equal beauty at every turn. If you are not the hiking type, you can take a jeep tour to the back country. If you are inclined to be more adventurous, you can go on a hot air balloon ride or a helicopter ride to capture the panorama from the air. Sedona is the place where many of the old western cowboy movies were filmed. I am sure we all saw a few of these when we were kids.
Our very own 64 classmate Philip Lee李榕堅 had won big in a dancing competition in Australia. The event took place on 25th March in Olympic Park. There were 18 couples competing for the Masters 2 Open events that they entered. Six rounds of dancing later they won first place in all dances which included 5 dances in Modern Standard and 5 dances in Australian New Vogue.
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“We were really pleased with the results as there were quite a lot of changes in the choreography of the Modern Standard style: Waltz, Tango, Slow Foxtrot and the Quicksteps although the Viennese Waltz stayed unchanged. We practised very hard, sometimes 5-6 hours a day to internalise the new choreography. As late as yesterday we were unsure if we could pull it all together for today's competition. |
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