Happy New Year 2017 .

To greet each other Happy New Year is a joy. To prepare the school for the new academic year in 2017 requires a great deal of effort, love, sacrifice, coordination and hard work from many parties.

The holidays at the end of each year  is never a quiet season for our  school. From 5th December 2016 when the SPM examinations ended, there is a busyness in SMK Convent Sentul not matched by many other schools.  The hive of activities executed by about 15 teams of workmen is closely supervised by their bosses on site  in school. The teams' bosses works in close liaison and are spearheaded by Mr. Lee Geok Ai, Chairman of the Board of Governors. I and Pn Wang and the  team of school administrators and teachers and office staff work together with these crews to upgrade the school. 

The school at 8.30 am in the morning will look different from the school at 12.00 noon and at 5.00 pm because the progress of the upgrading works done by the various crews of men. Mr. Lee  comes in personally many times to assess the problems faced by the various crews. His expertise empower them to resolve the problems faced. Photos of progress of work  sent through the what apps group helped him monitor and push the pace of work to reach our deadline before school reopens on 3rd Jan 2017.  Who are these  teams and what do they do?

Let me list them.

1.   Hackers and cement works.
2.   Tilers
3.   Painters
4.   Plumbers and Piping and Pumps
5.   Electricians and Fans Installation
6.   Landscapers
7.   Ironwork
8.   Furniture repair
9.   Furniture supply
10. Ceiling and Roofs Repair
11. Automatic bell Installation
12. Glass works
13. Bookshop Renovation
14. Frog Room and ICT upgrades
15. Banners Installation
16. Administrators and Teachers and Office Staff

I shall show some before and after upgrades photos.

The old cement floor staircase was moldy and even had a 
 plant sprouting out of it midway. It is so neat after being tiled.

The cement floors of some classrooms  had big holes even after 
we re-cemented many times so there was no alternative other
 than to hack and tile up these old floors.

6 classrooms with major cracks in their cement floor. Classroom floors are  tiled 
for the first time in CS long history of 76 years.


4 Cempaka floor after being  tiled.

We want to thank our generous sponsor Mr Alex Khor Ann Ling, the Managing Director of Topcera Sdn Bhd for donating the tiles for the 6 classrooms and the staircase. The classes that are being tiled are 3B, 5C, 5D, 4 A, 4B and 4C while the floors of 3D, and 5B  are  repaired.

The entire Form Four block is being repainted in various shades of grey to match the church new grey colours and our zincalum block. The walls are  painted a sweet soft lilac blue colour aptly called "Lilac Petals." 

Old rusty steel cabinets with crooked doors were repainted
and realigned. They looked totally brand new!
We are so delighted with the big difference.

The canteen block and the Form 4 block being repainted.

New colours for Form 4 block

The erosion at the bottom of the assembly platform is being arrested by repacking the soil and returfing it with new grass. The field will be improved by new soil and returfing. New shrubs are planted near the zincalum block to provide more shade for the 3 classrooms there. Paths are filled with river pebbles add a fresh look to our grounds. 

3 lorry loads of soil for returfing and tiling

We found difficult to plant  in this path.

Mr Lee had the brilliant idea to lay river pebbles.

There were at least 15 holes in the roof of the KH block.

Workers clamber up to repair the roof carefully.

Mr Lee was concerned that the canteen benches would spoil the girls' new uniform when they came back to school. Mr Lee  got Daniel Yong Shi Yuen and his team of men from BeauTop to repair them all.

Mr Daniel Yong of BeauTop was also very generous to donate 

about RM10,000.00 towards the fabric installation 

over all the classrooms soft boards.

One of the things that gave us great joy is to see the number of students in SMK Convent Sentul achieving full attendance for the  entire year. The full attendance record in 2016 is 127 girls who have never been absent from school .  I also have 14 excellent full attendance teachers whom I called my 007 teachers. They have 0 MC (Medical certificates ),  0 CRK ( did not use any of the 7 days legally allotted to them ) and have 7 days  to carry forward to 2017. We know for a fact girls and teachers sometimes do fall ill or there are pressing family events and matters, yet these 127 girls and my fourteen  007 teachers have made it a point to be never absent from school despite whatever challenges because they totally love the school.  We hope all our preparations to upgrade the school for 2017 will motivate others - students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders to give your all for SMK Convent Sentul and to be here with here. 

God bless you and have a blessed  year ahead! Happy New Year 2017.

International fishermen gather at Vancouver September 2016.

Nick say this giant catch alone has
made the price of his ticket from 
Sydney to Vancouver  worth it!
Nick is looking good as our cover boy
for fishing trips photos.

A crazy like mindedness about fishing drew passionate fishermen and wives from Sydney and Malaysia to meet in Vancouver in end September 2016. Nick and Irene flew from Sydney, Andrew and Lydia, Jason and Debbie and Chris flew in from Malaysia. We  joined the widely acclaimed fishing Sifu  and fishing king - Ben and Mei Tham and  Pastor Daniel and Pastor See Faa for a wonderful fishing holiday from 25 September 2016 to October 8 2016. Ben and Mei hosted us at their home. Oh -  such happy and warm memories  of this lovely colorful fall holiday.

Fishermen & wives from Sydney and Malaysia convene in Vancouver.

International fishermen and wives outside Ben and Mei Tham house

We were driven to Ucluelet, on Victoria Island by Ben, Mei and Pastor Daniel. We had fine dining just before checking in to a lovely super luxurious hotel. The guys went out early to the boat to do sea fishing well equipped with Gravo from both ends. We girls took our own sweet time to have sleep in and  to enjoy leisurely walks. 

Luxury double queen beds in this hotel room with spa for
 the Ucluelet sea fishing. Chris was all smiles as he mentally 
compared kelong fishing sleeping accommodations with this.

Classic jug and tray in the room.

The spa and the fireplace in our luxurious bedrooms. 

Our luggage looked so miserly in this huge bedroom.

Vancouver to Ucluelet to Victoria on Vancouver Island  and Seattle.
We spent two nights in Ucluelet and returned back 
to Ben & Mei home. Some of us made a trip to 
Seattle except the hardcore fishermen. 

Jason and the fish caught at sea in Ucluelet

Mei took the girls  to walk the Wild Pacific Rim Trail. Wow! It was a distant dream come true for me to finally walk on the edge of the wild Pacific Ocean. We heard various  sounds of the sea - high pitched whistling, gurgling and ... We saw mushrooms, wind swept trees, living sea foam, light houses etcetera  and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company and the walk on this trail.

Wind swept trees on the Wild Pacific Rim Trail

Mei Tham sitting pretty on a
chair shaped tree stump.

Girls just wanna have fun

On the last day, Mei drove us 4 hours plus to the world famous Butchart Garden and sight seeing in Victoria. Here we discovered Lydia loved the changing colors of the trees  and in particular  the yellow ones. We enjoyed ourselves so much and took the last ferry back to Vancouver. 

Butchart Garden overlooking the quarry

Irene Heah looking pretty.

Lydia loved the yellow trees.

Lydia was the model for most photographs

Guys went crabbing early as usual while we  girls took our time leisurely and had a great deal of fun, shopping, trekking at Lynn Valley and visiting the University of British Columbia. I dare say we girls saw far more of Vancouver compared to the guys thanks to Mei's savviness and graciousness.

Mei jumping up on tree stumps in Lynn Valley

Lydia posed  on this log in between 2 trees in Lyn Valley.

Girls in Deep Cove while guys went crabbing.

Mei prepared a wonderful  home cooked dinner
that night from the freshly caught  crabs, Yummy!

I couldn't resist posing with the giant pumpkins

We had a lovely BBQ complete with campfire in Pastor Daniel and Sea Faa's house on Sunday. The satay were yummylicious and the rhubarb soup very heart warming on this cold autumn evening. Pastor Daniel and Sea Faa drove us to Seattle for a day visit. We had fun at  Pike Market and enjoyed the beauty of the artistic hand blown glass works at Chihuly next to the Space Needle. The whole group graciously gave chance to me to take time out to go to Tacoma Narrows.

Chihuly Glass Musuem in Seattle

Jason and me in Chihuly Glass Art outdoors

My beloved Tacomas Narrows bridge  of the resonance experiment

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

I think the guys fished everyday except for 2-3 days. Fishing is very hard work but totally enjoyable for the guys! Each night they come home with many big fishes. Night time saw the fish processing plant  with international coolie team in action. The cutting, de-skinning, cleaning, vacuum pack and freezing was something new to us girls but Ben - the sifu seemed to have every equipment needed for everything including the vacuum seal and pump.

The guys stand in their waist high waterproof waders in the river.

The salmons that were caught are immediately gutted.
The cold river water  is a natural outdoor refrigerator
for the fishes until it is time to bring them  home. 

Production team hard at work. De-boning and de-skinning
and cut into steak size pieces before vacuum packed and freezing.

Posing with this giant ice cream cone in Deep Cove

Have you ever seen a Brussels sprouts tree?

Deliriously plucking delicious crunchy apples 

in Sea Faa's garden. I ate as many as 5 apples each day. 

They are so sweet and crunchy!

Sea Faa showing the work of her hands - 

her garden is totally organic. One main fertilizer 

is the  water from washing the fishes.

Plucking figs and eating them just off the tree.Wow!

We learnt the difference between streets and avenues. 

Streets run north-south while avenues face east west.

Odd numbers are on the left. A systematic grid 

system for addresses in Surrey, British Columbia.

Checking in at Vancouver airport. Guess 

which suitcases are packed full with frozen fishes?

Ben Tham - the fishing Sifu and Tai Koh and gracious host

It was great to be able to bring home several  suitcases filled with frozen fishes. We have had several parties in Malaysia enjoying the salmon- sashimi and various other styles. The what apps group of the 11 fishing party is always busy, with Nick and Irene starting the morning early from Sydney with posts on food and fish. The best thing is that Daniel and Sea Faa, Ben and Mei's hospitality and graciousness have started a strong friendship with fishermen and wives from 3 continents. The next fishing trip? Tickets have already been booked. Sydney in March 2017.