The Hous

The Hou and Tan families 

Here we are, the Hou and Tan families, at our last get-together on the Expressions4 Concert organised by our church Hope EFC on June 19. Elliot played 2 piano pieces, Ethan drums in a jazz piece (The girl from Ipanema) with Joshua on piano and Andrew on conga. They called themselves Jaeth. J and A also played classical pieces on the piano, and Caleb, the youngest Hou son, played the violin and piano. There were other participants, notably the guests of honour who were a jazz band comprising Andrew William, Ethan's drum teacher, and his 2 friends on electric guitar and bass guitar. So we had classical, pop, jazz and also rock, really loud rock, by our own youth (Bruce, Jonesy, James and Jessy aka the Catalyst).

It's kind of appropriate that we took this picture before the Hous left for the US the next week on June 27 because right from the very first Expressions concert we had 4 years ago, they have been taking up a large part of the programme, with piano, erhu (Andrew), conga (J & A), violin, even though they go to a different church. The next concert won't be the same without them.

Though they are now right on the other side of the globe in Washington state, it's as if they haven't left, thanks to technology. While they were here, even though we don't meet up that often, the boys chat a lot online. Now, not only do they talk by instant messengers, they have audio conversations. Tuesday morning (Monday night over there), while I was out, the 5 of them had a 40 minute conversation! That would have cost a pretty penny if they had used the old phone, but it was totally foc, other than the monthly bill for the internet usage.