.....of old friends

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) met up with an old friend after 38 years. From the left, Mr and Mrs Chau, followed by Y S and family. We did several meals together, lunches and dinners throughout the few days. There were so much to catch up on. So much memories to recall.

This is the facade of the hostel we stayed 38 years ago. The steps were like an auditorium where we used to sit and chat till the wee hours of the morning.

This one is for our album. Two buddies met after 38 years. A little grayed and wrinkled but the spiritual bond is as fresh as spring.

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) drove to JayBee to walk down memory lane. This is the only part of Malaysia where I have not driven through. All because of the multitudes of urban tales on car hijacking, kidnaps, robberies ( especially at Air Hitam ) etc. etc. As you grow more senior, you tend to reminisce more than see vision, and for this reason the good book says that "young people see visions and old people dream dreams." Ar........but then...what is wrong with a bit of reminiscing.

For that reason, Y S took a long drive to JB and checked into Crystal Crown. From there Y S looked up a long lost and very dear friend who was Y S' teacher training college mate in 1972. Sounds ancient ya ....... This is one old friend who remembered my birthday and called me on the morning of my birthday, the day I retired.

He was delighted to hear my voice after 37 long years. Good friends, so they say, are like stars. You may not see them but they are there. When we met face to face at the hotel lobby, 37 years of memories surged up from with us. We hugged and studied each other's physical features. We have had come a long way. We had grayed and wrinkled. He was amazed with my black crown but was readily assured that it is ICI weather shield painted, dyed, and nothing to envy about.

We had a glorious time bonding and filling in each other's gaps of the so many years that rolled by. It was done over many lunches and dinners which he insisted on being the host.

Virginia Woolf once said, "I have lost friends, some by death, others through sheer inability to cross the street." Make it a point to keep up with old friends. Cross the street and meet them. For you may never know when you could see them again since life is so uncertain these days. Don't live with regrets.

W. Somerset Maugham must have wrongly said, " It's no good trying to keep up old friends. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is too face it."