{"id":775,"date":"2020-02-25T14:40:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T14:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mysportsflame.com\/sportsflame\/?p=775"},"modified":"2020-02-29T17:35:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T17:35:51","slug":"in-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysportsflame.com\/sportsflame\/2020\/02\/in-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"In the beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By<\/em>
\nChristina Kwok:\u00a0<\/strong>I was only 13 years old when we first \u201cmet\u201d. Seems a bit young, now when I think back\u2026 but it was all very innocent . I remember being in my father\u2019s \u201ctemporary office\u201d located in one wing of the Merdeka Stadium during the 1968 Merdeka Football Tournament . He walked in \u2013 he saw me, I saw him.
\nWe next laid eyes on each other a few months later \u2013 again at Merdeka Stadium \u2013 after another football game. He was bounding up the stairs to the F& B on the top level. I was standing by the ticket turnstiles \u2013 again, waiting for my father to finish whatever he was doing, and to go home.\"\"Halfway up, he yelled to me \u201cI didn\u2019t recognise you!\u201d\u2026to explain \u2013 I had undergone a small metamorphosis \u2013 changed my spectacle frames, hairstyle, and perhaps grown taller. I was by now 14 going on 18\u2026 and since I was rather tall for my age, I guess many people thought I was a lot older than I actually was.<\/p>\n

And that was that \u2013 my father\u00a0showed up, ready to go home at last, and off we went.
\nA few days later, I was at home \u2013 upstairs, watching TV \u2013\u201c Mission Impossible\u201d in black and white, and the phone rang downstairs. It was around 9-something in the evening, and we hardly received any phone calls after 9pm.
\nMy parents were out, brothers in bed, maids in their room. I dragged myself downstairs and picked up the phone and spoke with a rather abrupt \u201cHello\u201d. At the other end, a rather deep voice, said \u201cHello, may I speak to Christina please?\u201d \u201cSpeaking\u2026who\u2019s that please?\u201d He asked me to guess \u2013 and I couldn\u2019t for the life of me guess who !! Well, the rest, as they say, is history.
\n\"\"
\nIf you are amazed that over 50 years later, I can still remember this so vividly, it will give you a measure of the impact and influence Chow Chee Keong has had on my life .
\nThere followed years apart \u2013 me in the UK completing my education, he in Hong Kong pursuing his football career \u2013 he was the envy of many of our friends, \u201cplaying\u201d and getting paid for it! We saw each other in a good many summers, when I was back in Malaysia for the holidays and it was off-season for him.
\nWe eventually tied the knot when I was the respectable age of 24, and then it was back to Hong Kong for another few years as a married couple, before settling down back in KL. Adrian came along shortly after, and Chee Keong was<\/p>\n

\"\"by now focused on embarking on a second career as a professional golfer.
\nAdrian has only really known his Dad as a golfer. But he has been privy to observing his father\u2019s discipline and tenacity of purpose in \u201cpractice practice practice\u201d.
\nIn 50 years, a couple in a relationship can amass a ton of ups and downs \u2013 and we were not spared the downs. But what did not kill us made us stronger. One of my close relatives used to say \u2013 Chee Keong was the kung fu master, and I was the one who successfully carried the burning Shaolin pot across the bridge\u2026and then came back for more!!\"\"
\nLooking back, I learnt many life lessons from him and from \u201cthe other side of the track\u201d. We came from pretty different worlds, but from the beginning, we knew there was this \u201cthing\u201d between us – and whatever this \u201cthing\u201d was, it carried us through till the end.
\nBeyond soul-mates, beyond the unspoken common values, beyond the excitement and passion, beyond being best friends, the love we shared took us to heights and depths .
\nWe had plenty of good times, fulfilling times and also trying times\u2026but hey, whoever said it was going to be easy with the likes of Chow Chee Keong?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christina Kwok:\u00a0I was only 13 years old when we first \u201cmet\u201d. Seems a bit young, now when I think back\u2026 but it was all very innocent . I remember being in my father\u2019s \u201ctemporary office\u201d located in one wing of the Merdeka Stadium during the 1968 Merdeka Football Tournament . He walked in \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-malaysia","category-malaysia"],"yoast_head":"\nIn the beginning - My Sports Flame<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysportsflame.com\/sportsflame\/2020\/02\/in-the-beginning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In the beginning - My Sports Flame\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christina Kwok:\u00a0I was only 13 years old when we first \u201cmet\u201d. Seems a bit young, now when I think back\u2026 but it was all very innocent . I remember being in my father\u2019s \u201ctemporary office\u201d located in one wing of the Merdeka Stadium during the 1968 Merdeka Football Tournament . 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