Catching up half a century of friendship on 11-18-24 in HK

Catching up half a century of friendship on 11-18-24 in HK video with UH alumni Laisum Cheng (back standing middle) when she and her brother Matthew of whom we never met picked me up at the Honolulu International Airport in Jan 1974. Her straight A and others at Kauai Community College (KCC) allowed me to enter KCC without TOEFL requirements, Kauai provost allowed any students from HK to take as many credit hours as we wanted. Therefore during my one semester in Kauai, I took 30 credit hours to make up 4 months of time wasted at Saskatchewan Canada. Matthew which is 8 years older attended KCC with his 1st Cousin Alfred Cheng (Rosaryhill Alumni of which I can write another LONG story at another time) and another old friend Frederick Chau (his sister Dorothy obtain her 4 years degree in 3 years also working 40 hours per week with almost straight A at graduation), we became roommates by renting a 2 bedrooms house in Kauai. Matthew became a fatherly figure, cooked 3 meals a day for us and taught us all the drive in a stick shift Volkswagen bug, took us to and from school everyday.

I met Alice Liu through Rotary Club almost 30 years ago when I am the commodore of the Yatching Rotarian with the Waikiki rotary club. Alice is an alumni of Rosaryhill School in HK (back standing far right) She is younger of course. We went sailing from the Royal HK Yacht Club to Sai Kung for seafood almost everytime when I am in HK. Some of the special guests on the sailing trip were Dean Emeritus Chuck Gee of UH School of TIM; Yen Chun, former partner in China Consulting; of course my old friend Douglas Hsia with the Rotary Club in HK now lives in Northern California. Both Laisum and Alice were colleagues worked for the HK government in the city planning division. Both are now retired taking full advantage to live in HK and travel the world. It is friends and friendships like them help make living my life meaningful everyday, making every visit to HK a memorable moment each and every time. 1974 年1 月，夏威夷大學校友Laisum Cheng（後排中間）和她的哥哥Matthew（我們素未謀面）在檀香山國際機場接我，重溫了半個世紀的友誼。KCC 學院允許我和其他香港學生在沒有托福要求的情況下進入 KCC，考艾島教務長允許任何來自香港的學生修讀我們想要的學分。因此，在可愛島的一個學期裡，我拿了30個學分來彌補在加拿大薩斯喀徹溫省浪費的4個月的時間。比他大8歲的Matthew和他的表弟Alfred Cheng（Rosaryhill校友，我可以在其他時間再寫一篇長篇故事）和另一位老朋友Frederick Chau（他的姊姊Dorothy在3年內完成4年的學位，也在同時每星期工作四十小時, 畢業時幾乎獲得全A），我們在考艾島租了一套兩房的房子，Matthew 成為了室友。他像一個慈父般的人物，每天為我們做三頓飯，教我們駕駛一輛大眾汽車手排車，每天接送我們上下學。

差不多三十年前，我透過扶輪社認識了 Alice Liu，當時我是威基基扶輪社 Yatching Rotarian 的準將。Alice是香港玫瑰學校的校友（後排最右），當然她比我年輕。我每次在香港的時候，幾乎每次都會從香港皇家遊艇俱樂部航行到西貢去吃海鮮。過去航海之旅的特邀嘉賓包括夏威夷大學旅遊學院榮譽院長 Chuck Gee；陳燕前中國顧問公司合夥人；當然，我在香港扶輪社的老朋Douglas Hsia 現在住在北加州。 Laisum 和 Alice 都是香港政府城市規劃部門的同事。兩人現已退休，充分享受在香港生活和環遊世界的機會(從她們你可以明白不少有心人士對香港的流言非語並非事實) 正是像他們這樣的朋友和友誼讓我的每一天活得有意義，讓我每次來香港都成為難忘的時刻。