Who Are We? - Diana Goh,
Lydia Wong & Garrick McCamey
Geoff Longshaw conducted the fourth “Who
Am I – Town Hall”- interviewing our newest members Diana Goh, Lydia
Wong and Garrick McCamey. This was an opportunity to explore their
personal stories and the life experiences they bring to enhance our club.
Geoff – What
Generation do you belong to? I’m a “Baby Boomer”, but a lot of people tell
me I’m past it…. There’s Gen X/Millennials/Gen Y/Gen Z etc
Diana – I
don’t really like to be labelled, perhaps Millennial or Gen X or somewhere in
between? XYZ, I’ll take X…
Lydia – I’m
“Generation Lydia”….I’m probably like Millennial or Gen Z because of my working
style, my communication style.
Geoff – We’ll
call you Millennial…
Garrick –
I’ve no idea. I know everybody here, so I feel older….
Geoff – Are
you an early or late riser?
Diana – I was
late, but am now early in Australia. In Asia, all the Tradies come late!
Lydia – How
“early” is defined? For me, I am up about 6 AM…some might think that’s late.
Garrick –
I’ve been up this morning since 6:50, so looks like it’s late…
Geoff – Lydia,
you come from Malacca in Malaysia. Are there lots of pirates, truth or myth?
Lydia –
Malaysia started through the Straits of Malacca and back then was a trading
hub, so probably there is the perception. There is a big wooden ship there in a
museum for tourists to take photos. No pirates, but today people are “pirating”
our food recipes….
Geoff – Diana,
you were across the way on the Equator?
Diana – I was
born in Pontianak, which gets sun and rain all year, and floods… I was living
very close to a river with lots of crocodiles and learnt to swim (quickly) in
that river. My grandfather had a crocodile farm, they are much smaller than
Australia. He also had a coconut farm, so I learnt to use every part of the
coconut…
Garrick –
I hail biologically from Newman, my adoptive parents are from Perth. I have
visited there for a school camp. My uncle discovered iron ore for Lang Hancock,
but we didn’t see any wealth…
Geoff – Garrick
your education was not in Newman?
Garrick –
I went to Wesley College from Years 1-12, not my choice…!!
I didn’t want to go to Uni, so got my Real
Estate Diploma.
Geoff – Did you
Board?
Garrick – I was Bored….. I
go to reunions (if I remember them)
Geoff – Coming
back to places overseas, do you get back often?
Diana – I left
at 18 to go to Singapore, lots of partying then. From Singapore I went to Batam
Island, lots of seafood, shopping and tourism. My father used to have two
little hotels there.
Lydia – I go
back every 2-3 months. Becomes I’m still doing my role in Malaysia while
working full time remotely in Perth, I need to occasionally “show face” with my
team.
Geoff – Garrick,
do you like to travel or are you a home boy?
Garrick –
I travelled once I got married – Europe/USA/Bali. My two kids have travelled,
they are spoilt…My partner is a keen traveller.
Geoff – Lydia,
there’s something about not having toys growing up?
Lydia – It’s
very common in Malaysia where parents only believe children should study. No
toys, must read or watch TV News. Coloured pencils were ok, I was creative and
fashioned little human figures. I developed resourcefulness from that….
Garrick –
Was I a comic reader? Definitely not!
Diana – I was
more into nature, I grew up with many cousins. There was lots of playing and
swimming after school. I broke my chin spinning around, so that put me off
performing.
I was the oldest child and my Mum was
illiterate, so I had to do all the admin and paperwork – even my own school
enrolment!
I had a large family where aunts and uncles
were known by their Hierarchy number rather than name…
My first language was a Chinese dialect, then
I learnt Bahasa Indonesia at school, followed by English and Mandarin from
Singapore TV (on the quiet!!).
Garrick –
I’m lucky to get English out! I tried Indonesian in High School, but gave it up
in
Year 10. Language wasn’t for me….
Lydia – I am
what they call a “banana” – yellow outside and white inside…I was only allowed
to learn English and was teased at school because I couldn’t speak Chinese. My
culture is Peranakan, I can understand but not speak Nyonya. As a
second language I learnt Bahasa in school and my husband is Indonesian. I also
learnt Mandarin from TV.
Geoff – Garrick,
I notice you played sport at Wesley. I guess it’s almost compulsory?
Garrick –
From Primary School I tried every one. In High School it was cricket and
soccer. I didn’t make the First XI as they trained at 6 AM…that was not me…
I was Athletics Captain in Year 12. I could
clear a hurdle, definitely didn’t get that from Warren..!!
Lydia – I
represented my country in Fencing while at school, lost to the Koreans… I
wasn’t allowed to play sports in the sun as I would get too tanned! I didn’t
enjoy it that much, the suits were uncomfortable in the heat, but it was a good
outlet from study and piano lessons. I enjoyed the journey of being able to go
to national competitions.
Diana – I
played Badminton, which is Indonesia’s national sport. In High School I would
play basketball for three hours in the morning, before the afternoon school
session (1 PM to 6 PM). School had limited resources, so Middle School would
have the morning session and High School the afternoon session.
Unfortunately the clock ran out with so many
questions remaining, so Geoff thanked Diana, Lydia and Garrick, "We have learnt
so much about you and all three of you are such wonderful contributors to
Rotary - thank you".
Directors/Member Reports and Announcements
Veronica
- Annual report now completed and pdf can be found in Google Docs with access via the 'members only' section of the website. If you want a pdf sent to you please contact Veronica at vlawrance17@gmail.com
- Rotary membership just reached 1,160,162 worldwide - 20,000 below same time last year but up 25,000 from 1 July 2024.
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner guests will be notified of their venues by 3.30pm on Saturday.
- Membership survey has now gone out via email with link to complete on line. Hard copy available from Kelly.
Lorrie
- Will be on annual leave from today but back for the BNB!
Wayne
- BNB on track with 17 cars now registered. Vocationals are invited to join us in Dallwallinu, Wongan Hills or Northam. Check our route on the BNB website at www.bulldustnback.com.au
Dianna
- Dianna (Goh) and Kim (Payne) held a Financial Wellbeing at Willagee community centre last Wednesday.
The focus was on Financial Literacy and Scam Awareness. Kim spoke on the importance of early strategy planning for family wealth, retirement incomes and scam awareness.
Diana presented on what to expect when family members take on a family guarantor role to assist with equity for first home buyers.
Rick
- Rick and Kelly attended Starting Over Support (SOS) headquarters looking at opportunities for RCMP and RC of Como collaboration project to support this organisation. SOS assisted 400 families last year and have a core number of volunteers, but need more. It is a professionally run organisation where every item is of quality, cleaned and packaged before distribution to families in need.
Another Fine-ancial Mess - conducted by Pocket Rocket Jenny McLean
- Geoffrey Longshaw for not disputing being fraudulently represented as a knight of the realm.
- Brian J, and Veronica L for misrepresentation - and no that's not poetic licence calling Geoffrey "Sir" Geoffrey!
- Mike Collett for trying to use his Woolies Reward Card instead of his Visa/Bank/Masterard! Tut-tut Michael!
- Scott Dwyer for his phantom fetish of fasting - but was caught hovering and sniffing the bacon and eggs on offer this morning.
- Lew Thomas, not only was he late and brandishing a brown paper bag (?) but stated he thought he was at Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!
- All Tech-heads, AI nuts, Data managers and Nerds - we know this is the age of technology but really?
- Everyone who was NOT inspired, overawed and overwhelmed by the fantastic paralympians this week and did not watch or support these amazing people.
Winner of Heads and Tails
Tosser of the week was volunteer Wayne Duke who tossed 2 x tails, a head and a tail, and 2 heads which ended up being "Duked out" between John O'Sullivan and visiting Rotarian Bill Boekman - finally a tail decided the winner - Bill Boekman!
Attendance
35 attendees in all, including visiting Rotarian Bill Boekman.
