EDIT: Janaken, another Shatin College alumnus has sent out an email (which I received only indirectly since I think only 2 people from Shatin College remember my email address - or maybe I’m just not popular, who knows?) The email explains that Calebjordan.org has been set up, with the intention of creating a memorial book and setting up a scholarship fund for impoverished kids. They’ve got my backing 100%.
One of my old Shatin College classmates died on the 5th. I only just found out.
Caleb Jordan sat opposite from me in registration throughout my time in Shatin College. Sixth Form had been divided into 12.1-2-3-4-etc instead of keeping people in their house groups and I always thought that in addition to wanting to promote a more informal atmosphere, Shatin College had decided to take this move because Hillary, the house Caleb and I belonged to, was severely undersubscribed.
In our entire house, in year 13, there were 5 guys in Hillary. 5.
Myself, Kiyong Kim, Jarkko Walrus, Michael Lee and Caleb Jordan. We would have been the laughing stock of sports day were it not for the ridiculous physical attributes of Jarkko and Caleb.
Caleb was something insane like 7’. He’d tower over just about anyone and the fact that Hillary’s 5 guys contained the 3 tallest people in the year was a source of entertainment in House Photos. We put that to good use during the onsite sports section of the House championship.
Basketball, Volleyball and Netball were all played onsite. Kiyong worked out that we wouldn’t be getting any actual rest breaks because as we cycled through events we would always have to be playing at least one sport to make up the numbers. This posed something of a problem.
We had an ace up our sleeve in the Netball tournament though. Shatin College’s A team was basically Hillary Girls + Kate Townsend so we could realistically field one other player and have a full, unbeatable team to make up for our inevitable trouncing on the basketball court.
Caleb, took up position in goal defence, which was kind of cheating by virtue of the fact that noone, in the serendipitous formulation of the rules of netball, foresaw a 7’ dude goaltending.
The game was hilarious. When the Hillary girls weren’t wiping the floor with their outmatched opposition, any attempted shots were blocked by a preternaturally long hand which seemed capable of comprehensively covering all but the most ambitious vertical lobs.
When it came to playing the Volleyball, we managed to field a team that included the tallest 3 guys in the year in a predominantly asian college. Imagine if you will the sheer bad-sportsmanship that this entailed: at any given time, we had one player who’s head popped over the net, blocking and parrying with considerable success simply because he had one physical attribute that was so key to the game’s performance, that he outclassed the entire opposition by having it in excess (until we played Tasman who had a well rounded and arguably, not-too-short team).
We somehow won the boy’s sports trophy because Caleb and Jarkko carried the track and field sportsday but I’ll always remember the onsite events fondly.
I can’t claim to be one of Caleb’s best friends, I didn’t see him outside of college, I think the only time I did was when he joined our large Shatin College horde that won notoriety as “underage beer drinkers” in the SCMP’s guide to HK nightlife but I, like many others have only good things to say about him.
I remember sitting in registration with him, talking about the Lord of the Rings films or about his family. Gangly legs draped in impossibly baggy jeans and a sweater who’s sleeves covered half of his hands.
And now Caleb Jordan stares, smiling through a pair of thin framed glasses, out of the class picture on my wall.
I wish his reason for not attending the next Shatin College reunion would be something fun or adventurous, like taking a trek through China, or playing basketball for his College - those are the sort of thing’s you’d associate with Caleb but instead in ten, twenty years we’ll probably just have a photo on the nametag desk, surrounded by cheery recollections and anecdotes about our memories of Caleb.
I hope they find one as nice as the one on my wall.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at November 7, 2005 10:54 PM