CUMaS Freshers' Banquet

I was jetsetting to KL again despite being back in Kuching from KL just over a week ago: the CUMaS Freshers' Banquet 2010 passed yesterday night, with much success I would say (the success of the event, not some other meaning of success the third-year guys are referring to!). Our new freshers are a rather dynamic bunch and plenty of academic disciplines are covered, but again there seems to be a heavy tilt towards medicine.

The banquet attendees:


They're already tagged on Facebook, so i'll spare myself a lot of effort here.

The undergraduates are:
Tan Kee Chong (Caius)
Lee Kin Wai (Emmanuel)
Stephanie Poo (Newnham)
Ho Gen Nen (Robinson)
Farid Nazer (Homerton)
Iskandar Mohamed (Churchill)
Ian Beh (Girton)
Sin Fang Yen (Fitzwilliam)
Nathaniel Jinho Clement (Corpus Christi)
Nicole Soh (Magdelene)
Latifah Hamzah (Peterhouse)
Haw Sue Hern (Peterhouse)
Zerline Lim (Fitzwilliam)
Amanda Chong (New Hall)
Arsha Kaur (New Hall)

Two postgraduates attended: Tan Chin Kiat and Isaac Yong (both Hughes Hall). I may have omitted some names or forgotten some, but there's ample time to update this post later.. One of the reasons for posting this list of names is, in good spirit, to see which of the freshers google the names of other freshers and end up here!

They deserve another round of congratulations for making it into Cambridge, and I'm quite sure most of them will do well academically.

The affair was quite informal (with a formal dress code though - I made sure to wear proper shoes, not sneakers, to escape the wrath of the President), with good food at Renaissance Hotel. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, but Elyse brought her DSLR and most of the shots are on Facebook. Had quite some fun chatting with the freshers and building up some "family ties" before we all move on to Cambridge. Here's my family:

Left to right: Stephanie Poo (stepdaughter), Haw Sue Hern (college daughter), myself, Parisut Kimkool (wife), Melissa Kong (not part of the Cambridge family), See Tian Feng (course daughter), and Tee Sui Poh (Parisut's dad?)

I guess we will do a family formal in Peterhouse, as I suggested.

And the news has been out for some time, but I should mention again that we are proud of Dhruva Murugasu for topping the economics faculty in Part IA of the Economics Tripos at Cambridge! Our very own sponsorship officer sets the bar high for all of us. Needless to say he has many claims to fame already during 'A' Levels, as a simple Google search will reveal (this is how I get information about several distinctive personages, which includes some of the aforementioned freshers - a Khazanah superior told me that google searches on people before you meet them are important). Fortunately, he doesn't read this blog.

As an aside: I discarded my suit soon after the event started because Nassim Taleb said that most "experts" who offer financial advice and perform no better than the market wear suits and ties. At least I'm minus the suit. (It is hard to quit idolizing the guy.)

Thanks again to Elyse for letting me bunk over at her place! She also says that Kuching kolo mee is very nice - tribute to Kuching! And now I'm back here to soak of more of this laid-back hometown of mine, and to enjoy some good local food. Cheers!