Collin Ng's Blog

It was her maiden voyage from the state-of-the-art Singapore Cruise Centre; the talk of the town then. The 13,000-tonner Royal Pacific, a luxurious passenger vessel was scheduled for 2 nights cruise to high sea voyage along the Straits of Malacca on 21 August 1992. Port clearance was finally granted at about 2000 hrs and she was ready to leave port. As the company’s operation manager, I was among the 535 passengers and crew onboard and many including some hotel crew were cruising for the first time; excitement of sorts can be felt all over. It had been a long hard day for me and I decided to make my way to the restaurant for dinner. As I walked in, a long queue was already snaking around the buffet table. Food was not replenished fast, used cutlery was still left on empty tables and I can see the sullen face of restaurant manager, Amba who apparently, was not happy with the pandemonium of sorts. After dinner at the Starlite Showroom, cruise director, Dick Carpentier an...

Mr Samuel was our form teacher in our secondary school days in 1977 and it was only in a recent gathering with some old classmates that I learnt the only one who has been maintaining contact with him all these years is Ragu. Single and living mostly a reclusive life, he was soon swindled by a long time friend after getting a lump sum payout for his pension some 7 years ago. Since he retired from his only known profession – teaching and English language to be precise, he has been struggling to keep ends meet. His only kin is a sister is in Kuala Lumpur and she is already 85-year old. After some effort, Ragu managed to arrange a meeting with him and I was eagerly looking forward to that day for I have not seen him for more than 20 years already. When I saw him, he is still as obese as before but the unkempt long white hair makes him look older than his 67 years. Due to his weight and coupled with poor health, walking a short distance is akin to running a marathon and it is really a pain ...