My family in the newspaper!

Yup, my WHOLE family are in it. All dressed in red with our family logo. You can read more about it here on my previous post.

Here it is translated in English(if there is a wrong tranlation please leave a comment).

Bowling event brought together four generations of families

For three hours, as many as 20 out of 24 bowling lanes in SAFRA, Tampines was noisily interrupted by the laughters of a large family consisting of 120 people.

Happiness and flurry was clear evidence that this event was a success - Hajah Marfoah Haji Arshad's large family were very joyful and got to know more about one another.

An event like this with the purpose of bringing the family even more closer together, is rarely done in a large family such as this. Most families would usually make a party event or a picnic.

As much as $3,500 was spent for the event.

The four generations of Hajah Marfoah's family - from the age of two months to 73 years old - wore the same colour T-shirt.

Hajah Marfoah, 91 years of age, was the headmaster of Sekolah Melayu Kampong Glam in Arab Street. She has 12 children, 41 grandchild and 57 great grandchild.

The group chairman of 'Family Of 46' or 'Keluarga 46', Mr Murshid Nasir, 43 years of age, an Executive of Operation in a company in Changi Airport, said:

'We began with organising a celebration for Mothers ' day on 2006 and then a tour to Pulau Redang, Terengganu, and Kelantan last year.

'This time it was slightly unique... playing bowling together. Indeed it was enjoyable when the family got together having fun. A stress reliever!'

Family 46 name was derived from Hajah Marfoah's family previous home number at Jalan Kechot near Jalan Eunos. The event ended with benediction.


Here's what was written in bahasa Melayu.

Acara bowling erat silaturahim keluarga empat generasi

SELAMA tiga jam, sebanyak 20 daripada 24 lorong gelanggang boling Safra di Tampines riuh-rendah dengan hilai tawa sebuah keluarga besar Melayu sekitar 120 orang.

Kemeriahan dan keriuhan yang jelas terasa itu terbukti tidak sia-sia - keluarga besar Hajah Marfoah Haji Arshad semakin mesra dan lebih mengenali satu sama lain.

Acara beriadah sambil meningkatkan silaturahim dengan bermain boling itu jarang dilakukan mana-mana keluarga besar di sini. Kebanyakannya mengadakan acara jamuan atau berkelah.

Sebanyak $3,500 dibelanjakan untuk acara tersebut.

Para anggota keluarga besar empat generasi Hajah Marfoah - daripada umur dua bulan hingga 73 tahun - sepakat memakai kemeja-T sama warna.

Hajah Marfoah, 91 tahun, ialah mantan guru besar Sekolah Melayu Kampong Glam di Arab Street. Beliau mempunyai 12 anak, 41 cucu dan 57 cicit.

Pengerusi kumpulan keluarga bergelar 'Family of 46' atau Keluarga 46 itu, Encik Murshid Nasir, 43 tahun, eksekutif operasi sebuah syarikat di Lapangan Terbang Changi, berkata:

'Kami bermula dengan mengadakan sambutan Hari Ibu pada 2006 dan melancong ke Pulau Redang, Terengganu, dan Kelantan tahun lalu.

'Kali ini unik sedikit... sama-sama bermain boling. Memang seronok apabila keluarga besar berkumpul sambil beridah. Hilang segala stres!'

Nama Keluarga 46 itu ialah sempena nombor rumah asal keluarga Hajah Marfoah di Jalan Kechot dekat Jalan Eunos. Acara itu diakhiri dengan doa selamat.

Family 46 Bowling Meet 2008 cum Gathering

Wow, what a day I had, I haven't been blogging much because I been so tired lately preparing for the day. Had a lot of practice at night (literally bowled till after midnight) with me family and also took time helping out with the committee on organizing the event.

I did a simple logo for me family. And no, we don't have 46 people in our family. 46 was the name of the road of our old meeting which was our late Great-grandpa's home. I have a pretty big family so usually we meet up at Lorong 46, Jalan Kechot. Not just during Hari Raya but on every other occasions we would meet up. The house still stands but now with a owner. The reason why it is such a memorable place for us was because, a lot of us grew up together with the home. The area used to be so 'kampung', so when I was a kid, we all had a lot of play area. We would run around, play hide and seek, explore the 'kampung', Singapore was still growing then, there were still pockets of 'kampungs' here and there. I guess I was quite lucky to see a a bit of it before Singapore became a concrete jungle.

Anywayz, the event was really a blast. Basically no one left empty handed, there were prizes for the top scorers, best team score, second and third placings. But there were other categories of winning, like Perfect 100, Score 46 only, Most balls in the 'longkang', First Strike of the game, Most funniest bowler, Most supporting team, etc and many funny categories. Most didn't know about it until the prizing giving ceremony at the end.

The kids had their own categories too, yes, they played too! We took up 20 lanes out of 24, so imagine how many people were actually playing. It was really fun. During the game itself, we all tried to out do each other, and give support at the same time. There were a lot of screaming, shouting, sighing, and with the loud music, it seems like everyone was on adrenaline. Haha!