Sea Park School Alumni - Tang Lung Festival 2005

SAT, SEPT 24, ARA DAMANSARA: Last weekend I went to a tang lung celebration (yeah I know, it’s 1 week late but hey it’s a great way to dispose leftover mooncakes ha ha) … organized by my High School Alumni, The Sea Park School Alumni. It was a great event as I haven’t seen my high school mates since leaving school 13 years ago. I brought my 3 year old son and there were lots of other kids there to play with him. He mixes well with other kids … and was immediately made popular by his electronic dragon lantern which has blinking lights, and can walk, flap its wings and sing…. The sound emitted from that dragon is truly annoying (it’s like chipmunks singing “Old McDonalds”… I am sure you have experienced those noisy electronic lanterns and how irritating they can be… but the children just love it. Just for the record, I didn’t buy it. My mom did. My mom must be silently punishing me for all the noise I made in her house ha ha). My son was dancing along to the music and it caught a little girl’s attention and they clicked immediately. Hmm... talk about ease of picking up girls ahahahaha kidding…

Well, the event went well, with lots of people from my year coming, most of them whose name I have totally forgotten (sorry *blush*). There were lots of food and you can easily identify who used to be Scouts as they were extremely good at BBQing. The ones that they made were all just right… they knew just how much margarine and honey to put on those wings in order NOT to serve cancer-inducing burnt chicken wings. Well, I took the easy way out and serve myself and my son with those boiled sausages and fishballs. Mmmm, taste good all the same. Of course, there were still plenty of bee hoon, potato salad and of course leftover moon-cakes but my carnivorous son wasn’t too keen on those.

To make it sound grand, there were people who came all the way from the US, well, at least 2 people I know came back from the US. I didn’t get to mingle with everyone as I was busy watching over my son in case he sets fire to the beautiful house. It was doubly hazardous with the BBQ fire and the candle-lanterns. The highlight of the night, besides the Malaysian Idol Grand finale (oh, for your information, most Sea Parkians thought Daniel would lose), was the lantern walk where all the kids get to walk around the park with their lanterns. Of course my son had to aggravate the neighbours’ dogs which made them howl and bark and woke the whole neighbourhood.

It was my fault really, as I told my son, “Oh look, can you see the dog lying over there?” and my son gave an evil grin, “Oh yeah, a dog, mua ha ha ha, woof woof”. He was imitating the naughty Sid from Toy Story. This triggered the other kids to start teasing the dog as well. It is no wonder that I stepped on dog poo after coming back from the Tang Lung walk. Hmmm, now I am a believer that God sees all and punishes accordingly.

When I came back into the house, my friends immediately picked up the stench and asked me, “Phew, you smell bad.”

I tried to defend myself and blamed it on the poor rabbit. (Oh, Tuck Loong, did your rabbit die after being inflicted with so much torture from the kids? The poor rabbit was trembling the whole night with the kids trying to poke it and scare it into insanity with the silly “Old McDonald’s” song).

It was a blessing that the commotion of a burning lantern at the park took the attention away from me and my pong. As a devoted father quickly ran to replace the burnt lantern, I quietly went to the side of the drain to scrub away the ugly patch of dung which stubbornly stuck to my shoes like glue. Gosh, wonder what this dog has been feeding on, UHU glue?

All in all, it was a good outing. We have Tuck Loong (the current President) to thank for offering his beautiful house for our destruction. Thanks to him, my son has learnt to use his crayons on my walls. Oh, Tuck Loong’s daughter is a budding Picasso as Tuck Loong has generously converted the wall of his porch into a huge canvas for his daughter to draw on. And I am truly sorry that son influenced other kids to turn your Sunflowers into Light Sabers, but rest assured that my son has nothing to do with your Rabbit’s continuous shivering. Oh, did I mention that Mei Yin’s kids were like angels? What’s your secret Mei Yin? They were so well behaved (except for the time they became willing victims of Hui Theng’s abduction. Earlier in the evening, Hui Theng had tried to runaway with 4 children but they only manage as far as the playground).

The other day I heard my friends saying, “Assunta’s Alumni is sooo “tight” (US colloq. for intense). It’s really awesome!” Let’s hope that our Alumni would be envied by others in days to come. With the current growth rate of our alumni, it wont be long before we can proudly tell other people that Sea Park School Alumni is ssoooo awesomely “tight”!