My friends at Windsor University, Canada.

Convocation/capping 1976, the three guys standing next to me. Koh, Wong and Ning. Right, Lee who joined us later. Photo by Peter Ning Choon Swee.

I wrote my tribute to my 3 great friends in http://annsnowchin.blogspot.com/2011/11/thursday-theme-song-great-friends.html
Two of my friends reply.

Choon Swee Ning:
Ann, I read your blog. Thank you for your praise. When we are out far away from home, we need help from friends. In fact I had the same situation that I took over 30 hours flying from Singapore to Dubai, Heathrow, Montreal and then to Windsor. I got airsick n vomited out whatever I ate. I lost at least 2 kgs. At that time, the fastest plane was Boeing 707, there was no 747.
When I arrived Windsor, I know nobody and nobody to talk as the university had not started yet. I stayed at McDonald hall, when I heard there was a Singaporean staying upstairs, I felt so happy to meet him. He was Martin Moy, the Martin you know.

So when you came, I have to help you whatever possible especially you a weak girl, to make you more comfortable and less homesick. This is what the human nature will naturally act so it is no big deal. Anyway we all enjoyed our life in Windsor among us Sarawakians.

Wong Hung Yong:
Thanks for your poems and praises accorded to us, the three gentlemen. You still remember how we treated to our fellow Sarawakians who left from our beloved homeland to pursue university education in foreign land.

We shared the same experience when we started our first journey to our destination of study.

It was 37 years ago when three of us (two disembarked at Hearthrow) took SIA 707 which stopped Bangkok, Dubai, Amsterdam. By the time I reached London, it was too late for the next connection to Montreal because SIA flight from Melbourne was delayed for 4 hours. I had to stay one night at airport hotel at Hearthrow. The next day, it took another 10 hours to arrive at Montreal, the biggest city in Canada.

The weather at that night was blisteringly cold and with thin clothes, I was shivering. Luckily Chieng was at the airport to welcome me. If not for this angel, I really didn't know what to do. He helped me all the way because he was also in the same university. It was like Ah niu/cow going to the city.

The third friend Koh Ngee Ann is in Sabah, Malaysia. I had not seen them since I left in 1977.