Hi, I am Edwin Chen. Already a corporate dropout at 61 but still pumping iron like Governor Arnold of California, dying to emulate him but can managed, maybe, catch the tail of governor of Bedok only!
A little career history……. I was a ……
Reinsurance Underwriting/Claims Specialist : Facultative and International Treaty Portfolios.
Lecturer: On an adhoc basis at the Insurance Institute of Singapore(now Singapore Insurance Institute) . Pet subject motor insurance physical/property damage and third party liability risks portfolios.
Member: Motor Insurance Policy committee of the General Insurance Association of Singapore. Responsible for public complaints. Drafts and amendments to the local Motor Insurance Policy and matters pertaining to the local Act.
Councillor of the Insurance Institute of Singapore for a number of years. Organizer/Moderator of international insurance seminars and conferences before my retirement.
Director of the Metropolitan YMCA/Stevens Road for a number of years. Organizer/Moderator of Plain English Speaking Contests for Secondary/Pre U Schools 1980’s
Singapore Representative: SSEAYP 1974 ASEAN / ASIAN Youth Leaders Program, Japan
Singapore Representative: Youth Leaders Worshop, Sukabumi,Indonesia 1970
Music Director/Trainer: Telok Blangah Constituency Choir (Winner Intercon Choir Contest 1990s)
After a roller coaster ride through life ………. Arriving to present and now a …………
Part-time: Church/Social Worker
Part-time: Musician/Entertainer
Part-time: Martial Arts (Nan Chuen)Advisor
Part-time: Handy Man (Repairing/touch up musical instruments)
Full-time: Home Keeper/Laundry Man
Full-time: Kamikaze Driver
Full-time: Rent Collector/Mow the Lawn/Clean the Pool(Ozland)
No-time: Still wasting time!
Still wasting time!
Anyone of you with similar CV, to my past or present, future?? can join me on my “yum cha” days, Tuesdays or Thursdays. Money of course still not enough but still can afford and occasional splurge with fellow Silver Hairs!
Life is to be enjoyed, be cool and stay cool!
Edwin Chen
Hi Edwin
I do not noe wen u join SHC nevertheless, welcome 2 the club. i joined SHC last month. I lyt 2 listen 2 good music. I hope i hf the chance 2 listen 2 ur singing and guitar playing.
U r ryt. Life is 2 b enjoyed.
Wld lyt 2 join u in ur “yum cha”
Cheers, Dennis
Dennis, if at all, Edwin is the one to welcome you….in SHC, he’s yr shi siong.
Well, Edwin, by now you know that you’re already very welcome but, for the sake of good order, I shall hereby hv yr welcome ratified.
It’ll be nice if I get to see you do the nan chuen.
My dad saw the rascal in me so had refused to impart his hong chuen in me but in any case, I kind of combined what I saw and a bit of mu thai to come out with my own brand of hong muithai chuen….a mouthful but quite effective.
But those days of beating up kampong dogs are behind me. Like Dennis has said, we dont hv too much time left so better to meet up for yum cha and then go bom cha cha……..
Hello
Edwin,
How you managed your full time with so much work and yet can go for yum cha……haha u must be doing with your own time management time…..Anyway I thought ladies enjoy High Tea, suprised that u guys like yum cha. Any way where do u go for your cha.
Tim
How your saturday nite at the the Zouk, must be very crowded, got your bom cha cha partnet that nite.
Actually now is my lunch break, just keep myself relax, it good to chitchat and back to work.
Jojo, I entered zouk close to 8 p.m. and left at 9 p.m. sharp as half of my heart was bom ba ba not pulsating at the club but at palembang where Japan battled it out with korea republic.
Yes, zouk was crowded and seriously, I aint one who pays to stand.
And when brine started talking, tho he had improved with fewer intermittent errs, still I cant forget his too many burps in the past.
So after watching max surin/tokyo square, and mathew/mandarins perform their signature songs within me shall remain and spore cowboys, I rushed off but not b4 one excited dainty ah pek turned someone’s glass of beer on me (wished Edwin was there to show that numbskull what nan chuen cd do).
Tim
OK, lucky me, I expected this crowd and decided not to go. I though u supposed to wait for me outside at 11pm giving me all the evening happening. MUst be having another bom baba appointment.
Hi Edwin, we have the same name sake. In order not to confuse others, I will sign off in another way just to differentiate. Tell me the next Yam Char Session time and palce and we will do just that to get to know you better. Meanwhile, welcome welcome, not that you are any stranger to all of us, but more to let you feel good …………:-)EONG
Well, Jojo, by 10.30 pm, like they say, I was already buay jin zhu liao…….cant recognise where home was?
How cd a team in better shape & form with 11 players not beat a team of 10 players, beats me?
If I was outside zouk at 11 p.m. I wd only be too busy burying my head on yr shoulders to cry and that wd hv been the evening’s happenings, heeeee, ai mai?
Tim,
U are a real joker, yr hokkien too deep for me, I cant speak much hokkien…. tell me why u want to cry….. over…………..
Hi there my namesake! (Edwin)
It is fine with me if we both carry on using our names. A little confusion keeps some of these people happy! I have no definite place for “yum cha” here, my friend, so I take the cue from season guys like you.Back in Burwood,Sydney it’s just across the street from my flat!
Tuesdays or thursdays,are always set aside for my morning “yum cha” sessions if that crash, then it is lunch at a tea house at Tanjong Pagar. Do keep in touch, regards, Edwin Chen.
Hi Jojo,
There is no secret in time management. I am no superman!Simply learn to know when to be still,calm,listen and breathe deeply. Quite similar to Taichi’s yin/yang principles. Drinking chinese tea the traditional way at home or in a tea house helps to calm you and allows you do a little meditation whilst going through the entire intricate tea brewing process. Japanese tea ceremony is almost similar in approach.
Do you have a chinese tea set at home? Take it out and try it! Call me if you need some start up help.
Regards,
Edwin Chen
hi Edwin Chen…
I like yr ending introduction “be cool & stay cool”..whenever i said that to my children..they said the phrase is only for the young!not true rite?let me add…be happy & stay healthy..always be optimistic, whatever happens…well…that’s me…similar CV?
Hi Dek Norlinda,
Thanks for the additional touch! Fact is, if I have not been cool & stayed cool, in all honesty,I won’t be around to chat with you today.
Regards sayang,
Cik Edwin Chen
Hi Edwin Ong, Dennis Wee,
Sorry,my daily routine is a little ruffled and privacy robbed by the, so called, upgrading project going on around my place. But rest assured, when things normalised, I will arrange a regular morning “yum cha” for guys like you who may be interested to know more of our chinese “culture” or what is left. They say, “europeans know their wines, the Chinese race know their tea”
During my stifled collar & tie days, it was just “kopi” at “lau pa sat” every morning if you are somebody at Shenton Way or in that vicinity .. well, or nobody but wish to be seen as somebody.. for a young pup like me! Millionaires or not even million hairs stayed around!
So guys,for the interim, it is just “kopi” and butter/kaya toast at the nearest coffee shop or “ya kun” at Siglap. Half boiled eggs are out and tabooed these days!
Regards,
Edwin Chen
Hi Edwin Chen
Good morning,
I do enjoy taking tea, especially green tea but I dont really go to the brewing process, maybe u are right, I will try out, u can guide me thru.
Maybe the next time u arrange for yum cha, just let me know, but not on weekday unless in shenton way area or tanjong pagar early morning that will be fine as my office is around this area.
Hi Jojo,
Got it. I will make the necessary announcement once I have an attractive deal worked out with Yixing Xuan at Tg Pagar or Tea Chapter nearby,I am not sure whether they are still opened to the general public.
Regards,
Edwin Chen
helo Edwin…im also around shenton way…may we(some other girls lah)join your cuppa tea hahaha!..just kidding :)
btw, where’s yr “ya kun” at siglap?..i stayed around there but donno?maybe i can try sometime..
jojo..think we’ve not met…but it will be nice meeting you next time,yr name reminded me of jojo sinclair!,unique!:)
Hi Norlinda,
Cycle along Upper East Coast Road, pass the Emmanuel Church on your right and follow along that stretch of “makan” shops… you should come across it.It is before a HongKong Dim Sum outlet if lost .. next choice go to Parkway. But in the city .. the Robinson Road outfit is best bet for you working guys/gals!
Regards,
Edwin Chen
Hi Tim and other readers,
Tim, is one pep up guy who would throw in a little spice to hot up the dish each time someone else is doing the cooking! Like it or not he just wants to be around and assist to satisfy our comments palate.
Earlier on, I mentioned Nan Chuen and he came up with Hong Chuen. Tim, please, I was a little rascal too when I was young. It is because of this that my dad threw me to the wolves,literally speaking. I could write a book on my early escapades. In fact, one of the more learned “pei du” mothers in my present China cell volunteered to pen it for me and publish it in mandarin text in China. Next Catherine Lim‘s best seller?
Traditionally, boys in a Chinese family are given a taste of martial discipline to prepare them for adulthood. I started at the age of seven even though I began attending a regular English school. Each day, I prefer doing my school homework than being forced into doing “horse stands” for a full length of a joss stick. No joke! Then comes “sticky hands” and “knocking hands” training. Less strenuous but equally bruising. I received less injuries at rugby and boxing in school than all this martial stuff and later years, “muay thai”whilst billeted with relatives in Sukumvhit,Bangkok.
Once again, dear Tim, if your dad had forced you into serious Hong Chuen, I bet you would have gone through a much more rigid training routine then what I went through. This is because, historically, Hong Chuen belongs to the Hainanese clan only and it is a well guarded form. Seldom is it taught to other Chinese clans. Just like Nan Chuen, a southern style, it is a hard martial art form with very forceful blows and heavy weighted steps. Less graceful and flowing as in Taichi or Pak Kua as we often witness. Unfortunately, because of the hard times in early China, many practioners started selling their art in exchange for money for their families. It is also a well known fact that the Japanese(copy kings) stole ideas from the Chinese and simplify it into Karate. In particular, Hong Chuen, hence certain similarity in their “katas“.
My dad, or any other serious exponent would repeatedly tell their students that martial is for self defence and self defence only. As an exponent, we know we could maim or kill very easily, patience is therefore the guiding key word in a martial artist’s life. Easily said, if Bruce Lee were to have taken his “sifu” Man Cheng’s advice, he would never have the need to flee from HongKong to USA and returned to die “mysteriously” ! Fate? Bad “fengshui”?
So, my respectable senior SHCians, in my years, seeking peace with a cuppa at “kopi tiams” or brewing and drinking tea at Chinese tea houses is far better than traveling half the globe, desperately seeking peace and tranquility. Nonetheless, an occasional disco thud is also good for the soul too. Afterall, Jackie Chen coined the phrase “drunken kung fu” after a trance dancing session in a disco! There is no such “kung fu”in the history of Chinese martial arts! Fishing is good too but with the modern “bugs” flying around, it is disturbing the peaceful setting. Be happy with your pursuits, enjoy yourselves,don’t worry….
Stay cool and be cool!
Uncle Edwin Chen
Un-gal Edwin,
Knn, why say so much when you can say it straight to me : tim you sibei KL. (That’s why I like Terence bcos of his doting sms to me, hv since wrapped his portrait round my bolster to make him suffer)
At morn when trees were still wet with dew, my dad wd choose 1 trunk to punch & glided away b4 the dew-drops fell on him. That sort of agility & lightning movements thrilled. (After a week, the kena lai siong trees wd hv to kua lao koon otherwise sure si kiao kiao one).
But he was the gentlest of men, only my mom rained punches on him.
Hee, if you can find a “pei du” mama to write you a book, I will honour it with a preface abt my dad. Sure sell better than Harry the Potty or the Auntie-Cathy-Anti-All’s Mules & Amuses.
I grew up at jln tepi sungei, a few doors away from lim ban lim.
While we kicked sandbags and chased dogs for the stamina, he, being the smartest of all who read the futures market best, went looking for guns. He made it, we didnt.
Haha, your standing like a horse for a full length of a joss stick sounds a bit like a page taken from the late Lei Tai Sor’s stories.
What my dad told me was, a pugilist has to be relaxed physically & mentally while practising the art, and looking at a joss-stick to keep time is a distraction worse than a beckoning Raquel Welch .
Btw, me not sure whether Hong Chuen’s founder was Hong Xi Kuan? Anyhow, my dad grew up in Shangdong……….heee, definitely not a Hainanese.
I came unstucked with HC for mui thai after a nite-out at Patpong to watch the thai kok mui doing their bout enticingly, so sexily.
Seriously, I do give credit to Nan Chuen……it’s common for pugilists to refer to “Nan Chuen, Bei Tui” together.
As we’re all honoured & gratified to be silverhairs after all these bygone years of heroics, I do wish now to join you not in Pak Kua but in eating bak kua.
Life ahead of us cant be longer than the years we hv lived so we shd emulate Sri’s hospitality to find & spend time together, not punching each other in a Raffles-Saints scrum but lock our arms & together songs we hum even as backsides we rock & gently bump.
In closing, since you brought up Bruce Lee, maybe I shd share a little on him.
Just b4 Wang Yu moved to Taiwan, his wife (Lin Chue), a good friend of Betty Ting Pei, invited Betty & Bruce to their home for makan. In truth, both women wanted to find out who was the better pugilist.
Wang fell Bruce twice and dinner was quickly served.
Nap-few tim
Hi Tim,
First of all, Bruce Lee is more of a dancer, actor than a full fledge pugilist having held a title in a HK “cha cha” contest. That perhaps, accounts for his falling prey to Wang Yu, after a few drinks maybe..
Hong Chuen is still “Ang Koon” and belongs traditionally to the Hainanese and is a southern pattern.
Next, whether it is a page from “lee tai sor” or “ong toh”, the onus lies in the broken noses that crosses my youthful past.
Uncle Edwin
Un-gal Edwin,
Me just jiak, you jiak ba buay?
Bruce set up shop in the US to teach hapkido and, like real, tied a few chopsticks end-2-end to do the nanchakoon. Like the 5 little folks – (wu siao fu) – Sumo Hung, Jackie Chan & the Yuen brothers – they were kind of acrobats picking up kung-fu along the way. Whatever, happy that they all made it in life.
In fairness to Wang, without Capt Sri around, they all started sober & on equal terms. (Unarmed Wang actually heat off 5 gangsters wielding poles & knives at Wangchai years ago).
“Ang Koon”, “Sio Yee Hor”, “Sio Koon Tong, 14K, Bamboo Union…., “08, 24…..”. “Sembawang Tigers, Geylang Parang…..” I hv long said my adios to them.
The scourge today is no more the brawny hard-heads. It now belongs to terrorists….they can be well-dressed, smiling and then crash someone else’ bicycle at yr apartment block.
Those days of our youthful past may bring on a smile but for me, no wish to re-live it again.
Nap-few tim
Hi Tim,
Good that you know and could differentiate between the acrobats and the real stuff. Yes, Sumo and the rest of this age group are just a bunch of yellow folks from HK bluffing the gullible white folks in the west! They made good too!
And also, you are quite familiar with the family of “hia tee” denoted by numbers etc.
Capt.Sri’s place SG use to be a play ground for some of us. I remember many a fight with “basalehs” at “Captain’s Bar” facing the roundabout near “chomp chomp”. Praise god, I am still around!
I agree, those days are gone. This days people don’t talk too much or fight(like me)…. they just make them disappear!
Uncle Edwin
Waaah Edwin! I was going through some of the profiles.
What a resume! Impressive! Music too. You must be a very interesting person. And me and my smiley faces, hehe.
Mary
Oh, by the way, I had a brother named Edwin too, but our surname is spelt with an “a”, i.e. “Edwin Chan”.
Mary
Hi Mary,(and hello to my namesake too!)
Thank you for your very kind words. I guess, at the end of the day, most of us would end up with a highly respectable CV and with a few plaques to hang on the wall besides all our academic and professional certifications etc period. Fact is, most of us spend an awful lot of time in our lives slogging on for “others”, rarely realising that we owe ourselves some good times too. It is fortunate & really wonderful for some to wake up one morning to say to oneself, hey I want this day for myself and myself only.
But some are not so fortunate, they will carry on as though securing a Fort Knox is their ultimate goal! Till one fine day, boom, like a sonic bang… and there you are at the pearly gates! What a shame!
Like what the other SHCians made mentioned,
you are truly at the right place. Be happy!
Cheers, Edwin Chen
Maybe some day someone will put up his mother-in-law’s profile……….he definitely has a lot to say in there.
Heee, tim is suddenly so obsessed with m-i-l.
Yes, anyone out there wants to audition for that coveted office of authority over a monkey?
One thing for sure, Tim. You have added a few more “laughter lines” to my face. Keep it up. Hehe.
Hi Edwin
Went through your profile and congrats for your great achivement in the past.
I note that you are now a partime church worker too.
May I know which church you belong to?
Its fun reading through your profile. Ya one of these days meet up with your for your kaya bread breakfast.
Regrds
Jane
Hi Jane Yeo,
I will respond via your email.
Regards, Edwin Chen