PE attempt (4th try)

This is KK’s fourth try now, to try and cross the Professional Engineering hurdle.

It's an annual ritual that has become familiar to me and the kids.

It’s the only time in the year when we head downtown on a working weekday evening to the SMU campus, and wait for papa to come out with a whole lot of other men who are similarly dragging textbook-filled trolley bags around.

He, however, seems to be the only candidate with a posse of one big and three small cheerleaders madly jumping outside the door to try and see him through the glass slit.

* KK in white at the back

The lead-up to the big event has also been the same for four years: The nightly studying which starts several months before, his overcast mien on his birthday (which always takes place a few weeks before the exam) and my having to take over all household duties for a while.

Also similar every year is the same strange mix of relief and despondency as he walks out of the exam hall and sighs.

What I have figured, if I could use a cooking analogy, is that he specializes in baking desserts (geotechnical) but in order to get the qualification he has to pass a test in Chinese stir-frying (structures).

Which is what makes it so hard because he doesn’t stir-fry, and he isn’t interested in stir-frying, at all.

The boys talk about their respective exams and cucumber-cool Day, who is having a much easier time of it than his papa, asks KK: What if you fail again?

KK replies: Try again lor.

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Celebrating KK's life

This blog is dedicated to Loh Kar Kheng, known to his friends as KK or Kheng. He died unexpectedly on Thursday, 21st October 2021, in an accident. He was a Professional Engineer who loved his job, an inspiring coach and mentor, a passionate and gifted sportsman, a leader, a biker, a dedicated father. In the years from 2004 to 2017, I maintained a family blog. These extracts celebrate his life. They capture his resilience and drive, overcoming the odds, to become a top-notch engineer (he just won a BCA award 3 weeks before he died, for his work on the new State courts - stories here and here ), his sporting passions and his love for his children. The blog goes hand-in-hand with a memorial page here . If you have a story about what he said, what he did, if he inspired you or what you remember of him, do leave it there. It would mean a lot to us. Thank you so much. Love, KK's family

The conclusion?

Finally, today, 16 months after his death, I receive the police investigation report and Coroner's Certificate for KK's death in my inbox. Apart from a few small things, this would be the last chapter in the book of things I have to settle. The findings do not tell me anything. I have bolded the main conclusion. Extracts from it: Further investigations revealed that around 11.00 a.m. on 21 October 2021, Mr Loh had texted his friend inviting him to go for a kite surfing session together. Later that afternoon, at about 1.30 p.m., they met up at the west side of Bedok jetty beach front and prepared their equipment. They had set off separately, with Mr Loh's friend starting his kite surf first, followed shortly after by Mr Loh on his hydrofoil board. That was the last time the friend saw Mr Loh. As they were surfing separately, the friend had assumed that Mr Loh decided to surf far down west and did not take further notice of him. At the material time, there were also other f

Steak dinners

A month passes. We are doing fine. The kids will forever associate KK with steak dinners, on Sunday nights. Day takes over. He tosses the steaks into KK's beloved cast-iron pan, bastes it furiously with butter. Fries up some mushroom sauce, the way his Papa used to. Its either too rare, or slightly over. "Can you buy good steaks which are of even thickness? I can't cook it evenly if its thin one side and thick the other," Day scolds. We have dinner with KK. The kids giggle. They usually end off with Don Don Donki-quality sweet potatoes in the oven toaster. I'll get those potatoes next time.

Stories of KK

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