Reverend Alfred J Deignan invited the friends and relatives gathered at the Hong Kong funeral Home late night last Thursday to look at the picture of the lady smiling happily and contentedly as he began his short homily. He told them that they were there to celebrate the life of a good person with a…
It was rain and shine for the Tuen Ng Festival last Tuesday; and I wonder how many of you registered that while you were basking in the sun or soaking in dragon boat rain, you could be celebrating summer solstice which was serious business before modern Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths were popularized, when the sun and the…
A friend I had dinner with a week or so ago stayed up to watch the live broadcast of the funeral service of Ronald Reagan in Washington’s National Cathedral. He was very impressed by how the United States paid its final tribute to the former President, the longest living president, by the details of the…
Last week, and last weekend in particular, was very significant to Rosita and I. Rosita was baptized last Saturday and has taken the name Magdalene, after Saint Mary Magdalene. I was baptized very young. My first school was a Catholic school and I got baptized together with most if not all of the classmates. In…
I left Los Angeles with Rosita’s father, brother and his wife for San Francisco the day before Lawrence’s commencement. This was a familiar trip: Rosita’s siblings had driven us up quite a few times in the past, but this was the first time Rosita was not with me for the land trip. I sat with…
Once again, I found myself doing a long haul across the Pacific by myself. I had got used to doing so when Rosita could not accompany me on those long trips, sometimes on Rotary meetings, but mainly on business trips. I thought that I would not be doing solo traveling after retirement. It seemed so…
If you are interested in Rosita’s latest conditions, go to the last part of this letter. It was two months since I wrote my last letter in this series. No one needs to be reminded that the sun still rises from the east and the Earth constantly revolves round it with or without my letters….
I always find it pleasing every time people talk about my letters, even though they don’t always read every issue or its entirety and even though they give me backhanded or mixed compliments. It happened that Rosita and I were in Bangkok a few days around the Chinese New Year holidays and met up some…
I was supposed to go to a meeting convened by the President-elect of my club to discuss how best to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our club, until some of us found out that the time clashed with at least two other events involving Interactors and Rotaractors. The meeting having been rescheduled, I found myself…
It is customary around this time to make New Year resolutions, so that we can break them at leisure in the next 12 months. The more popular ones include, not in any order, read up the weekly magazines, clear the desk before going to bed, reply to all e-mails within one working day, do not…
