our old classmates in tanglin techical school 1975
the last class gathering with the presence of eddie chiong on 12-02-12
eddie chiong shall always remain as my best friend forever. unfortunately, he passed away suddenly on 1 june 2012 due to a sudden heart attack. mum was saying that she just met him just a couple weeks ago at sis' shop and he was looking so well. suddenly, he was gone :(
during secondary school days, we were in the same class at TANGLIN TECHNICAL SCHOOL. i considered him my best friend from there on. we shared some uncanny pyschic connection. it was weird. we needed to look at each other and we just knew what was in the other mind. usually it would be some noti shared pyschic image and we would burst out laughing in unison.
after secondary school, we went into polytechnic but in different classes. we still kept in contact. later he joined RSAF or the air force for his NS. our meet ups got lesser.
there in the airforce, he met POLLY GOH whome he married privately. not many of the old classmates knew about his secret marriage to polly. he didn't throw any lavish wedding dinner nor even a simple one with close friends. but he did tell me about it and introduced polly to me.
after airforce, he set up his computer firm in funan centre and called it EDPOL. ED being the prefix EDdie and POL being POLly from his wife. it looked like he loved polly very much. then things gradually began to change. it could the tiredness of living with the same person together for so long that each took each for granted. basic self-respect could have been lost along the way and petty resentments continued to accumulate. such was the mundane behaviour of human :(
my youngest sis who was fresh from school then worked for him as a "pow ka liao" assistant. my sis might be puny but she got a shrewdness for running a business. eddie appreciated her assistance and treated her very well. hmmm, i think she was very lucky to be pampered by eddie who was a generous boss with a big heart.
then my other sis helped him to do sales on a part-time basis. finally my another sis who's a year younger than me also began working for him fulltime after my father lost his business premises which was ungraciously conned by the church who was a mean and dishonest landlord for more than 30 yrs. it was hard to imagine a church could behave like that:((
even my niece CHARLENE joined EDPOL working part-time in sales. she was devastated to learn about sudden departure of eddie. she is now in taiwan working for a international film company. she wrote in my FACEBOOK after seeing eddie's pics that "i made her very sad...." my dear charlene, ur ah ku is even sadder to have lost a life-long best friend.
his business wasn't very good. that was when i came into the picture again. initially i was helping to help delivering his pc sets and SITOCA tables to his customers by providing transport with my SUZUKI mini pickup. his brother-in-law chee seng would go together with me to fix up the pc n computer table. he paid me quite reasonable at $25 per pc set and $15 per table delivered.
Later business wasn't really as good as it used to be. oh well, might as well, i began to teach him to do share trading and try to make some "easÿ fast" money. eddie chiong being a very resourceful person learned very fast. interent at that time wasn't really so hot yet. it was a dial-up connection. the share market was quoted but in a LIVE PRICES format yet.
we pinpointed one special counter CREATIVE which was also listed in NASDAQ as CREAF. it was this counter that brought in the fortune for eddie chiong who was a bold investor or speculator. he borrowed from a couple of banks just to trade in one counter CREAF.
he made his millions. everyone around him benefited especially in food. he brought us to buffet; to very expensive meals. one most memorable was regular dining in RAMA THAI which was famous for whole sharkfin and braised abalone in claypot.
eddie and i would patronise the restaurant at tg pagar. it was our very first time devouring a whole big sharkfin with a fat whole abalone! my god! it cost each about $200 ++ for a claypot of double combination. it was our first time using fork n knife to eat a whole big yummy abalone on top of a bigger piece of sharkfin cooked in a rich very shiok broth served with towgay.
then he made even more "easy" money from other CLOB counters. off we went for more sharkfin/abalone claypot, buffets and all sort of expensive dinings. there was once for a certain CLOB counter he made a cool 5-figures by contra trade and he treated everyone in his company to RAMA THAI. everyone got their sharkfin/abalone claypot individually. the bill was astronomical with the service charges coming to about a cool few hundreds. who care! was his attitude. he got the easy dole to pay for all.
that was how generous eddie chiong was. it wasn't just the food, there were other indulgences like expensive karaokes which were very frequent a few times a week. then there were the movies which he would pay the tickets for everyone.
those was the happiest time. it didn't last. soon there were the horrendous CLOB SAGA and many share investors - we included - were badly hit. it went on for so many years. our bloody gov was helpless and gave many false hope. in the end, everyone who traded in CLOB SHARES was badly CLOBbered.
i lost almost all my savings :'( eddie chiong was worst. he borrowed from the bank. he over indulged in too many expensive investment like buying a mercz, buying a warehouse and implanting a 5-figure real hair strands into his light-bulb head. incidentally, when everything went downhill, his implanted hair shedded too and he was back to his light-bulb scalp.
when he was rich, he used to teased me "see, now i got more money than you...." well, i had to retort wickedly back: "chey! at least i still have more hairs than u! " and we would both burst out laughing in good joker faith.
very soon, his attitude changed for the worst. he seemed to be angry with everyone and everything. me included. most of his friends deserted him. though i was concerned with him, i too kept my distance lest i got the very sarcastic and unkind remarks from him.
he was still engrossed in his share speculation. i regretted. i wasn't sure whether i had helped him or it could be the ruin in waiting :( when he was making million$, we were like discussing and planning for new businesses. i did remind him to pull out of shares and concentrate on his business since now he had all the money he needed.
it was really too tempting to stop. making money seemed terribly easy that time....and so the wheel of fortune turned against us. it was then all downhill.
finally he lost his shop, his warehouse, his mercz, his van....and finally even his implanted hairs. worst of all, he lost most of his friends who he was quite arrogant with them and offended many.
i understood eddie. i m still his best friend. i feel his torment and his anger. i was saddened when my sister told me that a shop which he was subletting refused to rent him cos he couldn't pay the rent.
i dunno....poor as i might be now, i decided to give him $300. it was a $250 lottery which i striked. in order to "cheapen" myself to compel him to accept money, i conjured up a lame story. the one which he paid me $300 to buy back the pc he sold me which was quite faulty. i told i spoiled the pc and was feeling bad that he gave me the money. so i "refunded" him the money and plead with him to accept. i hugged him and patted on his back and told him....I M ALWAYS YOUR FRIEND NO MATTER WHAT.
he accepted the money. in a way, i resolved whatever anger or misunderstand or resentment. it was a very pleasant feeling and i didn't mind being humbled. to be frank, there wasn't such negative feeling in me. it was just happiness i could offer to my pal.
during our last meeting, i sms-ed eddie. to everyone's surprises, eddie appeared! sadly, that was going to be our last fellowship with eddie on 12-02-2012. even the date appeared quite unique.
on 4 June 2012, eddie chiong suddenly had a heart attack and died. what pissing me now is : why didn't his wife POLLY inform me or my sis? i got news of his demise on 19 JUNE. it was when my sis sms-ed him to ask him to come help her pc. late evening, then polly responded and broke the news about eddie's death. why is it like that??
we didn't given the chance to have a final sendoff for dear eddie. that made me very angry and sadder :'(
now polly told my sis that she is looking for an altar in crematorium to permanently put eddie's ash to final resting and she would inform us. it's 1 week already....and there isn't any news yet. :(
i just couldn't understand this. really! eddie had told me before his death that he was already separated from polly and in about 3 yrs time, they would be officially divorced. they were childless which would make the divorce less messy.
why then did polly not informing us? hatred blinded for revenge or getting even with eddie? i never shall know cos my sisters were reminding me NOT TO ASK and let it be.
so to eddie chiong my dear dear best friend, i hope u rest in peace and if ever there were to be a nextlife, i shall be your BEST FRIEND FOREVER! i shall miss u dearly my dear eddie chiong.
