Saturday, November 15, 2008

Uncle George

Uncle George is one of my mum's cousin brother, whom they grew up together i guess. He was migrated to New Zealand the year I was born, so I never met him before. I heard of him a lot from my mum, his son and so on. He did came back to visit mum and us, 10 years ago to SOON SOON the bah kut teh cum coffee shop cum restaurant we used to have there then, I can't remember why on earth I was not there. So I like miss the golden chance in 10 years. After that visit, Rachel did have some mail contacting with Uncle George's son, Jack, whom he now called JT. (like JT. my friend in Ohio, I miss that kid)

Since I recently fond of knowing more about New Zealand, I figure that I have an uncle there. So as I found Jaslyn Tan's (another one of my many cousin sisters who is now in Australia) Facebook, I accidentaly or shall I say detective-fully, success to find a suspected Tan's family dude. Which is pretty good looking. So I send him a message like...wait let me copy it down here
October 5 at 3:17am
It might sound weired a little, but I wonder will u be my cousin...
Are u Uncle George's son?
October 5 at 7:00pm
hihi yes im george tan's son ?

So we kinda 相认 but he seems a little cool, at the end he said he is not so sure about family connection. Poor him. I wonder if he know Chinese. He did tell uncle George about our message, apparently Uncle George can't remember my dad's surname. That he denied me. One month later Uncle George added me in his FaceBook. He wrote me walls. I told him I never met him before, but he insist that 10 years ago he saw me in the bah kut teh shop. But sorry, I wasn't there. He then write me a message which let me know more about him. He is one funny uncle. This is so cool, like you meet a distant relative or a relative from far land that you never meet before, its interesting, isn't it.

His message for me in FB:

November 14 at 5:08pm
Bk in 1967-68 I was in Methodist Boys School in Dato Kramat Road doing my HSC.board in somewhere 1/2 way to KeklokSi on Ayer Itam road for only $60-00 a mth including 3 meals a day....thats lot in those days.

I did not went to Uni immediately, instead went to work. to earn $$$$.

I did some corresponding studies, when I was A Country Manager for Oral-B, Dr Westin 1980.I then 2 summers bk in 81-82 @ Syracuse University in NY , USA to complete my Graduate Studies in B.Com majoring in Marketing.

Migrated to NZ in 1986.

Worked as A senior Bank Manager for an Australian Westpac Bank, left and was appointed by the Minister of Education of nZ as a Director for Auckland University of Technology(AUT Uni)...thats where JT graduated in 2001 after 5 yrs with B. Eng double in Electronic Communicatiobs and Computer Systems and a double in Grad. Dip; In Business...International Business Management& International Human Resources.

I retired from all directorships since 2003 after 4 heart attacks since 1997. The retirement age in NZ is 65 yrs old. I'm only 60yrs old I therefore don't qulify for a weekly pesion...Uncle very poor lah.
I grow my own vegs; to survies....hehe...organic ones.(hobbies)
I grow, chives,sping oniouns, green & snow peas, bitter melon(fukua), round beans(kuei tau), long beans(taukok)-2 types, canadian yam (wutau), lemon grass, assamlasak leaves, 2 lemon plats, choysums, kailan, kaichoy....flowers...beau roses.

Planting just my hobbies...most of my friendsjust come and harvest them for free lah...too much...we can't consume them all.
I'm a RETIRED FATHER CHRISMASS...hehe. The cost of planting and daily taking care of all my vegs; and flowers keeping me alive lah with all the fresh NZ air.

Don't worry, I m OOOKKK now, after stopping smoking, sleeping early...@ 8-30pm every night; wakes up @ 4-30am, ...read all news on the net...than @ 6 pm wlks 3km with my pet Golden Labrador 4 yrs old dog.

We in the south of Equater are having Summers from Dec to feb; we r now 5 hrs ahead of M'sia. but will revered bk to 4 hrs during the Winter mths from April to Sept..thats went JT go snow bording every weekends.
summers he plas Hockey and Golf.

Yan, after u graduated, try get a job related to yr studies.
While working I suggest u continue further edu inprobably international business, tourism, hotel management.
reasons being its anadded advantage to all yr languages majors...a supplement to advance yr career.
Many students in NZ @ AUT with language majors continue such majors to advance in life.

Uncle hope u do so.


Uncle Geo Geo

He address himself as Uncle Geo Geo, this is cute.

Uncle George,
Let's talk Rugby and Dunedin.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

YAN,

Sorry for the heaps of typo srror.

Never been a typist (my sec; does all that---diatations too lah.)

As a linguist major..plz correct the text for me.

Uncle GeoGeo

=DeNIsE= said...

Is alright...Me too always got typo error...

sleepy said...

Heys Denise, I was here!
And i find this story really interesting! Your story of finding Uncle GeoGeo is so surreal. And the fact that he's such an amazing and fun uncle makes it more meaningful!! =)

Joyce

=DeNIsE= said...

Hey Joyce,
How are you, good to see you here.
Can't believe you have a blog in German.
I should start something in Japanese then.
When will you be coming back?