Family and Friends have always been close to My Heart and Mind. On the month of October we tend to celebrate the birthdays of our family with Su Min on 4th October, Dad on 5th October and Woon Han on 19th October closely with each personally if they are present at home and/or an online celebration so that others away can join in or if they are away from home themselves.
As we celebrate and wish Happy Birthday to our so called 'Nuclear Family' members above in the month of October in which memorable moments may be shared in photos below or found in links to other online posts, I would always also think of extended family members and friends who also have their birthdays in October. It may not be a complete list as I only add names to it as I discover the date of each over time in order to remember and wish them all a Happy October Birthday too! At random, some memorable moments with the October babies may be shared below as I recall them or can find the pics or stories to share below :
Extended Family : Ho Lian Sim on 2nd Oct, Lim Chong Fong 4th Oct, Elle Chang on 5th Oct, Chong Rui Yang on 9th Oct, Careese Chang on 25th Oct
Our friends of the family in Church include - Katherine Orgill and Anthony Liew on 2nd Oct, Kevin Tham on 4th Oct, Vanessa Wong, Bro Selvaragu, Judy Beard who served a mission with her husband Colin in JB from Australia and Ariunbolor whom we met in the HK temple from Mongolia on 6th Oct, Andrea Davis Pyle on 9th Oct, Kent Davis on 10th Oct, Jenny Han and Mackenzie Walker on 13th Oct, Gunchi Takeyama on 14th Oct, Merille Yong(Sheppard) on 15th Oct, Dennis E. Dalling and Duncan Horne on 16th Oct, Deedra Rama and David Olsen on 17th Oct, Penny Low on 20th Oct, Richard Ho, Wu Yuk Choi and Samantha Ng Li San on 21st Oct, Jeffrey Lim on 22nd Oct, Sarah Brandt, John Lee and Helen Loong on 23rd Oct, Charlene Goo, Julie Lanshe and Terrence Lim on 25th Oct, Rachel Tan on 27th Oct, Mariann Selvaragu and Steve Tettey on 29th Oct.
Then there is a myriad of Dad's network of friends from his business network, Church or School network and other affiliations such as the Toastmasters etc whose birthdays also fall in October such as : Aaron Delaney and Torch Tabiar on 1st Oct, Lauren Christiansen, Laurel Theobald and Wan Zaharizan on 3rd Oct, John Finlay and Murray Ceff on 4th Oct, Malligah Suppiah Egbert on 6th Oct, Joel Wright and Jico Marzello on 7th Oct, Alfredo on 8th Oct, Fong Muntoh, Thomas Lim, Ron Leong and John Leavitt on 10th Oct, Chin Yen Lin on 11th Oct, Lim Sim Seng and Zane Pulver on 12th Oct, Kelvin Kumar, Joshua Yong and Matt Hickman on 13th Oct, Lionel Cornelius, Benjamin Ford and Rodney Koh on 14th Oct, James Png,Veron Lim, Rachel Yer and Randy Schroeder on 15th Oct, Tang Tuck Cheong on 16th Oct, singer Dami Im(Click this link) on 17th Oct, Ganesh Sangaran, Scott Watene and Andrew Lee on 18th Oct, Shaun Kwong and JK Khoo on 21st Oct, Jackson Ng and Puvan Kandasamy on 22nd Oct, Willy Lim 24th Oct, Jeffrey Seah 25th Oct, Angel Anderson on 26th Oct, Brigham Jenkins and Rachel Teshima on 27th Oct, Ong Sinnie and Mandy Ong on 28th Oct, David Ooi and Brent Yong on 29th Oct, Joyce Sim, Steven Cheong, Alice Low, Brycen Robinson and Billy Lee on 30th Oct, Azhar Zulaily on 31st Oct
OCT 2
Valentine's Day and Night Special from Dad the KL City Kid on Vimeo.
OCT 29th
This is the birthday of David Ooi, a neighborhood friend that I often visit when I am in Singapore.
As we celebrate and wish Happy Birthday to our so called 'Nuclear Family' members above in the month of October in which memorable moments may be shared in photos below or found in links to other online posts, I would always also think of extended family members and friends who also have their birthdays in October. It may not be a complete list as I only add names to it as I discover the date of each over time in order to remember and wish them all a Happy October Birthday too! At random, some memorable moments with the October babies may be shared below as I recall them or can find the pics or stories to share below :
Extended Family : Ho Lian Sim on 2nd Oct, Lim Chong Fong 4th Oct, Elle Chang on 5th Oct, Chong Rui Yang on 9th Oct, Careese Chang on 25th Oct
Our friends of the family in Church include - Katherine Orgill and Anthony Liew on 2nd Oct, Kevin Tham on 4th Oct, Vanessa Wong, Bro Selvaragu, Judy Beard who served a mission with her husband Colin in JB from Australia and Ariunbolor whom we met in the HK temple from Mongolia on 6th Oct, Andrea Davis Pyle on 9th Oct, Kent Davis on 10th Oct, Jenny Han and Mackenzie Walker on 13th Oct, Gunchi Takeyama on 14th Oct, Merille Yong(Sheppard) on 15th Oct, Dennis E. Dalling and Duncan Horne on 16th Oct, Deedra Rama and David Olsen on 17th Oct, Penny Low on 20th Oct, Richard Ho, Wu Yuk Choi and Samantha Ng Li San on 21st Oct, Jeffrey Lim on 22nd Oct, Sarah Brandt, John Lee and Helen Loong on 23rd Oct, Charlene Goo, Julie Lanshe and Terrence Lim on 25th Oct, Rachel Tan on 27th Oct, Mariann Selvaragu and Steve Tettey on 29th Oct.
Then there is a myriad of Dad's network of friends from his business network, Church or School network and other affiliations such as the Toastmasters etc whose birthdays also fall in October such as : Aaron Delaney and Torch Tabiar on 1st Oct, Lauren Christiansen, Laurel Theobald and Wan Zaharizan on 3rd Oct, John Finlay and Murray Ceff on 4th Oct, Malligah Suppiah Egbert on 6th Oct, Joel Wright and Jico Marzello on 7th Oct, Alfredo on 8th Oct, Fong Muntoh, Thomas Lim, Ron Leong and John Leavitt on 10th Oct, Chin Yen Lin on 11th Oct, Lim Sim Seng and Zane Pulver on 12th Oct, Kelvin Kumar, Joshua Yong and Matt Hickman on 13th Oct, Lionel Cornelius, Benjamin Ford and Rodney Koh on 14th Oct, James Png,Veron Lim, Rachel Yer and Randy Schroeder on 15th Oct, Tang Tuck Cheong on 16th Oct, singer Dami Im(Click this link) on 17th Oct, Ganesh Sangaran, Scott Watene and Andrew Lee on 18th Oct, Shaun Kwong and JK Khoo on 21st Oct, Jackson Ng and Puvan Kandasamy on 22nd Oct, Willy Lim 24th Oct, Jeffrey Seah 25th Oct, Angel Anderson on 26th Oct, Brigham Jenkins and Rachel Teshima on 27th Oct, Ong Sinnie and Mandy Ong on 28th Oct, David Ooi and Brent Yong on 29th Oct, Joyce Sim, Steven Cheong, Alice Low, Brycen Robinson and Billy Lee on 30th Oct, Azhar Zulaily on 31st Oct
OCT 2
Mimi Ho Lian Sim, my only sister-in-law with the same Libra star and wisdom that I knew from growing up with her guidance that persist to this day. Birthday stories from 2014 here.
Even my son Shuan gets wisdom from her to this day, one representing the Next Generation.
OCT 4 & 5
Su's birthday on Oct 4th and mine on the 5th are often celebrated together as her US time can be the same day as Dad's Msian/Spore time on an online get together as shared in a special post here.
On the 4th of October is also the birthday of my nephew Yang Arif Lim Chong Fong who was my playmate in our younger days as I was the youngest of a family of 7 and he the oldest of 4 to create only a small age difference between us to make us good buddies. Only problem I guess is when we all grow up, we become busy with our own life, work & family particularly and glad there were some larger family events that we could catch up with each other.
OCT 9
Received news from my oldest brother that his son's (Woon Ming) wife have delivered their first baby boy named Chong Rui Yang on this day! The mother Jenn is now in confinement in her parents home so there are no visitations yet to share any pics here of the baby. They were just married on 24th December last year :
I have the privilege of sharing their first family photo here in this auspicious month and my first view of Chong Rui Yang!
OCT 12
Besides family, there are some friends who also go back a long way in time like to the single school days such as Lim Sim Seng whose birthday is on this day.
He is a true friend who came out to look for me when I was doing voluntary work as a missionary for my Church after my graduation and...
... years later when he learnt that my wife Geok Lee had cancer, he came to visit us in our Singapore home too!
OCT 19
This is the birthday of the oldest boy of the family on the far right carrying his Dad with his siblings!
If his Dad loves to play Superman, then surely he hopes his boys will be Super too and the oldest son Han Chong or Chong Woon Han is paving the way.
The problem is he is setting such a high standard recorded in his personal profile found in familylane that it will be hard for others to emulate!
But not to worry as his Dad is fine even if they end up making 'Super Goof Ups' like he did to create a facebook video for his birthday to post on his timeline a day too early!!!
Here is on the night of the actual day of his birthday where everyone in the family got online on Google+ Hang out, except Ern who could only call in on the phone from his army camp, with Shuan in Kuantan and the girls in US, to chat and sing Happy Birthday to Han before he blew the candles and cut his ice cream cake that was starting to melt! Mom of course looked on in spirit of our ongoing family gathering on birthdays and other special occasions in the Singapore home.
OCT 21
Wu Yuk Choi celebrates his birthday on this day!
Only finding my old mission companion from Hong Kong recently on facebook did I realize his birthday was on this date. From the early 80s where we first met together serving in the Singapore Mission to reunite in the above photo in his home taken in 2005.....
... and reunite again in May 2012 in Hong Kong when we were there to accompany our oldest son Han to the temple before his mission to the Manchester UK. Look forward to meet him again next month when he will spend time with me to visit mainland China to help me find my ancestral home village in Meixian.
It's Happy Birthday to Ng Li San, a member of Melaka Church who visited our Spore 'Boy's camp' home in Singapore to help in the kitchen where the above photo was taken in 2014!
Biker friend JK Khoo also has his birthday today. I was inspired to make a video below of our ride on Valentine's day in Feb this year when I realized we had one lady Snow White and 7 male riders in the photo below used as the video cover photo :
OCT 23
Meanwhile it's all quiet at home with just Ray the youngest and his Dad! Oldest brother Han lives at the Yale-NUS campus, the 2nd brother Shuan is having driving lessons in Kuantan and 3rd brother Ern has to stay at his Specialist Cadet School as part of his National Service requirement.
So the 'Like Father Like Son' team is seen busy at home even at meal times with their computer! Dad recalls the last time that there was just two of them alone together was in a 2011 Father-Son outing. It was very nice too because there were no computers in our tent! In fact he had another distraction out in the wild as shared here.
This photo was taken on Ray's 17th Birthday last year on Sunday Nov 2, 2014 to see if he could beat his siblings to be taller than their Dad! We have to wait for Nov 2 next month to make this annual measurement on his birthday where comparisons started with photos since the year 2010 found in this post.
A trial photo was taken on this day but as there was no 3rd person to take the photo, an auto self-timer camera was used which unfortunately chopped the top part of the heads to make it unclear who is taller in the auto photo shot! The suspense remains till the actual date of Nov 2, 2015 to have a judge present celebrating Ray's birthday to take another photo of us to record who is indeed the tallest in the Chong familylane journals on this date!
(Postdated event : Click here to see more height comparison photos in the November Babies post.)
To be continued with more photos to follow as the day progresses....
This is the birthday of David Ooi, a neighborhood friend that I often visit when I am in Singapore.
I was at his home on 22 Oct, a week before his birthday to catch up with the latest news from him on Singapore as I had to leave back to KL on 25 Oct for my China visa interview on the next day. he took the above photo of me with his iPad.
I got him to take this front page of the day's paper of the news that the court had found the founder and 5 others to be guilty of all charges concerned with unlawfully taking money from their own Church in Singapore.
