Radios

Dear jumjum...

Right before my flight back to HK from KL, my brother and I went to the bookstore for something to read on my 4 hour flight. My brother bought me All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I thoroughly enjoyed on my journey. It is set in the 1940s, on the verge of World War II, and follows the lives of a blind French girl and a German orphan boy. The boy finds and repairs an old radio, and enjoys listening to all sorts of programs with his sister, most significantly one teaching science to children. 

His interest in listening to the radio reminded me of one of my most expensive purchases in my childhood. When I was in primary school, I loved listening to the radio- not only because of the music, but because it made me feel like I was connected to the outside world. Sidetrack: this was when I was living in Kajang, not small town Kuching, so I don't understand why I felt like I wasn't part of the society, but so it was. However, I could only listen to the radio in the car, and so the choice of channels we listened to were subjected to mum's approval. This was also before I used the internet on the regular, so I didn't get music off the internet either. 

When I was 10, I was waiting for my mum (doing her hair? I forget) at a mall. I was handed one of those promotional leaflets for Watson's pharmacy. It was close to Christmas and one of the items they were promoting was a Snoopy portable radio. It was grey aluminium, palm-sized, with a Snoopy illustration in the corner, costing RM30 or RM40. (I scoured the internet to find a picture, to no avail). I deliberated for awhile, then informed one of my siblings before I shot off to Watson's. On the way there, I remember worrying if the radio came with earphones as I had none. I was stoked to have my own radio and it seemed too good to be true that I doubted if it would work... Evidently, worthless worrying begun at a young age for me. 

For whatever reason, I felt like my parents would disapprove of my purchase, so I hid it from my family members. I would listen to it when I couldn't sleep at night. It was a pain to find a strong radio signal but I loved it anyway. I don't remember if they ever found out about it, and I have no idea what happened to it..

*atm*

Nighttime Dreams

Dear jumjum...

One of my recurring dreams is that my family has moved to a new house, and I'm there for the first time, already in the process of moving in. Our new houses are always huge and adventurable, with interesting layouts and multiple entries and exits to each room. I always enjoy the houses, and in my dream I'm like, "This is cool, but what were my parents thinking?!"

Among my favourites was a house with a floor-to-ceiling window spanning an entire side of the living room, and the window overlooked the sea. There were multiple islands in the vicinity, with people sunbathing and playing on the beach. The best part was...get this: the islands were floating islands, so at any time we could have different islands floating past our house! I remember spotting a particular one, telling my family that I've always wanted to go there, and considering if i could just open the window and jump across.

A few nights ago, my parents had purchased a castle. At least, I'm convinced it was a castle- it had a gold ballroom. Zac and I found the way to balcony, complete with fancy bannistors and flags, which overlooked the ballroom, and we were just leaning over and looking down. For the record, everytime I dream about Zac, he is always as he was at 8-10 years old- much shorter than me, roundish, with his kiddy voice and fair complexion, even though he overtook me in height about...4 years ago? It's as if in my head, I'll always see him as my little bro who needs to be taken care of. I wonder what a shrink's analysis will be...I told Val but she just laughed.

*atm*

Primary School Days III: Of Being Bullied, Conned and Looked Down Upon

Dear jumjum...

  The afternoon session kids in my primary school had to line up near the bus stands and recite the 三字经 along with the audio broadcast before we went to our respective classes. We were pretty obedient in reciting but of course we would sometimes get sidetracked and start chatting with our friends instead. For this purpose, there were prefects on duty to catch us out. In primary 2, there was a short and fierce primary 3 prefect (I can still picture her face- she had the most gorgeous silky brownish hair) who was in charge of our class. For some reason, she would ignore all the other students who were talking and single me out for scolding. And I didn't even talk much! I think I was pretty guai le. Anyway one day she scolded me really badly and I started to tear up (for the record, I wasn't scared of her or anything- I just tear up easily) It was so hilarious because she started staring intently at me with her big round eyes- because she was so short and I was quite tall, she had to tilt her head backwards to look at me- and I just kept quiet and stared back ( with tears streaming down my face), she ordered me to stop crying, but I continued. Then she must have got scared or something because she went away and never came back to bother me for the rest of the year. LOL. Crying power!

  I went to my sister's class to see her before, so her classmates all knew I was her sister. One day I was using the pay phone and this girl  beside me was watching me open my blue-striped Hello Kitty purse to get my coins. Now I was very paranoid as a kid, and I used to bring like, RM30 to school everyday because I was scared that I might one day forget to bring money to pay some fees. (I just remembered something completely irrelevant: in primary one I would only buy sandwiches in the canteen even though they were huge and I could only finish one out of the two- because they cost RM1 and I could hand them the exact amount without having to calculate how much change I should get if I bought anything else- yes I was very very bad at maths) Anyway this girl asks me if I'm 珍梅的妹妹 and she tells me that she desperately needs some money (I forgot what her excuse was) and could I please lend her (I think it was) RM20? I wasn't dumb, but she really looked so sad and needy so I asked for her name and gave it to her. I don't remember if I told my family when I got home. A few days later she came to my class to see me and she was really panicky and asked me to return her the money she lent me! I was like, WTH?! Don't speak nonsense with me, woman! She started crying and said her aunty was downstairs waiting for her to get her money back and she would be really angry with her if she didn't. I refused to back down so she threatened tell her aunty and so I told her I'll be informing my parents before I went back to my class. The next day my parents brought me to the vice principal's office to settle the matter. Before we arrived (my sister was in the morning session, I was in the afternoon session) I think my outraged sister confronted her and had already scolded her. The vice principal called her to his office and she continued to deny that she borrowed money from me. I don't really remember how it ended but when she left, the vp told us that she was a problem child from a broken family, and that this wasn't the first time she caused problems in school. 

  In primary 4 we had a mini chinese test and I got a C. The form teacher told the class that if you got a B, you should work hard towards an A for UPSR. If you got a C (the worst grade in class because we were the 精英班), you have no hope of getting an A for UPSR. I was pretty upset. In hindsight, how could she just assume the worst of us like that? Heck, we had two more years to improve our chinese before our UPSR. Anyway I was in Kuching for primary 5 and 6 and had the awesomest, fiercest, most pushy chinese and maths teacher- she would make us stay back after school two days a week for those two years to give us tuition free of charge, and I respected and was in awe of her, so I pushed myself partly for her sake and  my two most dreaded subjects improved greatly. When I got an A for chinese in UPSR, I really felt like flying back to Kajang and waving the results slip in that teacher's face.

  The only other thing left that I remember about those days is that my mum would take our exams so seriously (she still does). When I was in lower primary, throughout the exam period my mum would bring hot milo in a Jacob's biscuits cup for me during breaktime every single day, sometimes she would send my sister. (We lived like, 3 minutes away from the school) She would be standing in the doorway until the recess bell rings and I would go and take it in front of the whole class. Weirdly, I never felt embarassed- just very happy and honoured that my mum cared so much about me. =)

Random picture during Children's Day- I drew that cake!

*atm*

Primary School Days II: Dancing!

Dear jumjum...

My slightly tomboy stage with
short hair and no two front teeth!

  Part two of my primary school experience! My school required all boys to keep a crew cut (up til secondary school, so it was pretty hard to tell the boys apart from the back), and girls had to cut lo ma zhuang (no idea how to write in chinese) which basically meant your fringe should not touch your eyebrows, your sideburns should not touch your ears, and your hair should not cover your neck. Rumour has it that the school once had to deal with a severe kutu outbreak, hence the rule (no idea how true this is).The only way to escape this was to join the dance troupe or gymnastics-only if you have joined for a year and have shown real passion in it, they'll let you start growing your hair long. Once you quit, your long hair-growing rights are forfeited. I don't remember if initially my sister just wanted to grow her hair long or she was genuinely interested in joining the dance troupe, but she fell in love with it and stayed on until secondary school. And I, the little sister, just wanted to follow everything she did so I joined too (also story telling, debate, mooting, A Levels- just tailing after my sister). 

Less tomboy here. On holiday in Kuching, at my aunt's old house, 3rd mile.

From left: me, the smartest girl and class moniter, gymnast, pretty girl who speaks cantonese.

  The only time in my life that I was actually thin was when I was dancing! For the afternoon session students, dance practice was every Wednesday,  from 10am to ?? (I forgot), in the school hall, and I lovedlovedloved it!! We would dance barefooted and our soles would be black with dirt. We wore the dance t-shirt and dark coloured short tights. I remember I had two pairs of tights, one black and one dark blue, and the dark blue one was looser and less flattering, so I'd only wear it when we had to practise on consecutive days for a performance- when I had no choice since the black one would not have dried yet. 

Yes, I still keep my shirt =)

  Our teacher was a short guy, married with a daughter but had pondan characteristics. We used to be super scared of him because he always wore black sandals, and if you messed up your moves he'll take off one side and throw his sandal at the floor near you (man he had a pretty good aim!). He rarely complimented us, but would shout at us all the time. I can still remember his voice barking at us- 一，二， 三， 四，五 (he'll always exagerrate the 五)， 六， 七， 八， 二， 二， 三， 四，五，六， 七，停 (he'll say 停 with a slight relief in his voice like, finally! You guys did it!)。Despite all that, he was very lovable and the students rarely complained about him.

  We would start off with warm up and stretching exercises, then proceed with the routine dances, and sometimes the selected few would practise special performances. After practice we had to change into our school uniforms and get ready for classes. We would go behind the stage curtains to change, and it was pretty dark so we'd always mix up our shirt or pinafore or belt and come out with different coloured pinafore and belt and look ridiculous!

Only picture of the hall I could find off the internet...the same curtains we changed behind!!

  There were two school teachers in charge of the troupe, not actually teaching the dancing but just coordinating and taking care of us when we went out for performances. One was this plump, fair and jovial teacher who was constantly sweating! She always carried a small black bag in the crook of her elbow and always had a tissue in hand, dabbing at her sweat. The other was the one we all hated. She always criticised our dancing and tried to change certain moves she didn't like when in fact it was none of her business, and our real dance teacher would always ask us to ignore her remarks behind her back xD

  We had an unspoken feud with the gymnastics people. They had a different dance practice schedule from us, but when our performances clash, we'll all have practice everyday, so we'd be forced to share the hall and our teachers would have disagreements on the way the hall was divided between us. We had much more people than them but they use these fancy mats that roll out and take up half the hall (so their feet were never blackened like ours)! They were like the elite kids in school- they were the rich kids whose mums would stay in the hall and watch them throughout practice. And I was secretly in awe and admiration of them and would watch them and imitate their moves at home LOL.

  Those days when we had perfomances, the girl with a mobile phone would be the most popular girl for the day. My parents would always come and see us perform and check up on us, no matter how far away the venue was. The grandest one I was in was the one at Stadium Bukit Jalil, for the official national day celebrations in 2003 where we could see the king in the front row. It was crazy mayhem backstage because there were all the local artistes, other dance troupes and everyone else all together. I remember squatting at the side of the walkway with 家芸(if I remember correctly), opening our lunch packs- rice with cockles and bitter gourd. At that time I hated bitter gourd, and  家芸 hated cockles, so we exchanged and purely ate what each of us liked xD

  Sometimes we'd get to see our seniors in secondary school perform, and I always thought that that would be my future- dancing in sec school and probably for life. My biggest regret is not continuing dancing after we moved. I guess my loyalty to my old dance troupe made me reluctant to join another, and at the back of my mind I always thought the move was temporary and that one day I'd go back. Ahhhh I miss dancing! 

Our school was partly independent, so we had fund-raising dinners each year. This was 2002.

The one in the center is meee! So skinny but face so round.

*atm*
  

  

  

Primary School Days I: First Best Friend

Dear jumjum...

My 1E classroom was the first classroom on the left side, ground floor. Admin office was the middle section, ground floor. The hall was middle section, 3rd floor and the staffroom below it.

  I attended primary school at 加影育华小学 SRJK(C) Yu Hua , Kajang, Selangor from primary one to four and was really upset to leave when we moved to Kuching. It is a massive school, with around 50 students per class and classes A to K in each year, so primary 1 to 3 in the afternoon session and 4 to 6 in the morning. The school has computer rooms, music rooms, 视听室, big library, basketball courts and chess and ping pong tables where all the boys would run to during breaks, and it was totally different from SK Song Kheng Hai, the primary school I moved to- back then it didn't have a music or computer room and the library was super small. The primary and secondary school are built side by side with a big gate cutting off the primary side from the secondary side, but we shared a canteen so the canteen was massive too, with a main caterer and several minor stalls around, like a mini food court. 

 I was in 1E, and we used to call ourselves the 'E 班人' cause it sounded like 伊班人(Iban). LOL. So anyway I was really excited for my first day of school, I told my mum I could handle it and asked her to go home.  I sat together with this small sized girl (I've forgotten her name and her face) and we started talking. (huge challenge for me, a girl who grew up speaking English and only knew she had a Chinese name at age 4) I made a big effort to try and speak in Chinese because I thought that if my classmates knew I spoke English, they'll laugh at me... Anyway that girl and I agreed to sit together for the rest of the year, but the very next day she changed her mind and sat with the girl behind me! =( I was really annoyed cause now I looked like an outcast, sitting alone. 

  A few days later there was a late comer, accompanied by her mother. I was so excited because this  meant that I could potentially change my lonely situation! I don't know where I got my guts from, but I kept pointing at the seat beside me when the teacher was looking for a place for her, and I got my wish! Her name was 家芸.

 A few days later my mum came to class to look for me- I don't remember what she was telling me but I remember that she was holding this silver umbrella. My mum always speaks to me in English. When she left, 家芸 exclaimed in a super excited voice, "You speak English at home? Me too!!!" We immediately switched to English and that was when we really hit it off. Turns out, all the while we were both struggling to converse in Chinese with each other! It was hilarious! She became my first best friend- we joined the dance troupe together, we went to each others' house a lot, and I used to call her even after I moved to Kuching..I think the last time I called her was after PMR results were released. To this day, I can still remember her house phone number and we're also friends on FB. (I hope she doesn't read this and get creeped out hahaha) I can't believe I can't find any pictures of us together! Ish. 



*atm*

2012-2013 Highlights!

Dear jumjum...

  The A-Levels era wasn't the best era (post-PMR was), but in my opinion, it was the period of time where we got to do the most things...

  Since most of us had our own cars already, we could do all the outrageous stuff our parents probably wouldn't wanna do or fetch us to do, like going to the opening of Plaza Merdeka, first day of Kuching Festival, Sung Ha Jung performance at the airport, going to Friendship Park on Lantern Festival, Hitz Birthday Invasion...

  Permai Camp. I honestly never fully participated in an overnight camp before, so this was pretty fun for me, even though I fell and hurt my knees AGAIN on the FIRST DAY. The most memorable event of the camp was of course Jethro lighting the campfire and burning himself xD His leg hairs were all burnt and his fringe looked pretty funky too...

  All the school trips...Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, the Orang Utan place (whatsitcalled?), UNIMAS, and Bako National Park.

  First job tutoring the Tham kids. Certainly an experience for me...got quite annoyed at them sometimes but it was okay overall, although his UPSR results weren't as good as he was supposed to get..

  Interning as Bio teacher at KHS for a week. Seriously seriously enjoyed it...although I was so used to the air-conditioning at Lodge I was sweating buckets everyday. Was really fun going back to my old school and seeing all my old teachers and juniors. The only regret I have is not taking any pictures!! Arghhh.

   Ele had a coupon or something for a free one-night stay so we had a sleepover with the Lenians at Merdeka Palace! Freda and I shared a bed, Cam and Ele the other. We were supposed to stay up all night but Cam and Ele (pigs!) fell asleep halfway through a movie >:\ The next morning they were trying to get us up but we didn't want to, so there was a whole lot of tugging blankets and grunting and pillow fighting going on... After breakfast we went swimming then ended up sitting in the baby pool just talking =)

  Singapore trip! This was the first time I ever travelled without family, going to Singapore to visit Joshua together with Camellia and Kah Sing, and also meeting up with Daryl and Edric. It was great being the master of ourselves for once, for instance going back to Josh's place at 3am and not having to answer to Mummy. The worst part of the trip though, was water! Josh didn't have drinkable water at his place and I'm an aquaholic so I was constantly having to look out for pharmacies and supermarkets and lugging around big bottles of water. Big thanks to Josh for lodging and
bringing us around and worrying about us worse a parent xD

*atm*

  

Form5CrazinessPlan!!

dEaR jUmJuM...

This was compiled by Freda and I in the starting of Form 5. I still remember us sitting at the back, in the newly-constructed Block 2, writing this bunch of crap on the back of my notebook just before we went home:

(copied exactly)

FORM 5 CRAZINESS PLAN

1. Join swimming competition. ✓ Hilarious!

2. Act like spies and assasins in school. ✓ We barged into Miss Bong's class with 'guns' in our hands and rolled on the floor!

3. Run during sports day. ✗ =(

4. Have eventful Valntine's Day. ✓

5. Skip 3 whole periods in another class and not get caught.✓ Hahaha in 5S2 on a Tuesday.

6. Decimate D. Poodle. ✗ Sadly unfulfilled.

7. Sleepover! ✓ Da's house.

8. Make videos in school. ✓ Tons!

9. Take lots of pictures. ✓

10. Overnight in school. ✗ Hahaha nuts

11. Photoshoot @ studio. ✗ Sadly

12. Go out of Kuching for competition. ✗ Only in F4...

13. Confess to somebody. ✓ LOL

14. Perform on stage. ✗ What were we thinking?

15. Makeover. ✓ Da has..

16. Model in school. ✓ Tons of times

17. Straights A+'s. ∞ When the sun rises in the west, maybe.

18. MAKEOUT with hottie at a pub. ✗ This is CLEARLY Da's idea........

Love of Driving

dEaR jUmJuM...


I've always been obsessed with driving. It seemed like the coolest thing to be able to manouvre a vehicle, bringing yourself and other to places your legs cant take you. My mum said driving was in our blood, as my grandpa used to be a bus driver, and another worked as a postman. Driving was also a symbol of 'grown-up-ness' and freedom to my young mind.

Here are some of the crazyyy stuff I used to do back then to bring myself "closer" to driving...

1. I remember going to a restaurant with my dad once, and saw

straws that were exactly like these- black, with that extendable bit at the neck. Somehow it reminded me of a manual shift gear, and I pestered my dad to get some from the waitress. When I got home, I stuck one into the space between the sofa cushions, took a frisbee for my steering wheel and 'drove' haha.



2. My sister and I used to own a ton of Hot Wheels toy cars. We'd spend hours lining them up in staight lines using rulers and books. Also, I'd move the cars around the room, imagining I was actually in that car. Very abnormal for a girl, I knoww.



3. I used to cycle around the taman last time in Kajang. I'd dream that I was a mother, dropping her kids off to school and tuition. Back then I bet people were bewildered by the crazy girl who cycled and stop, cycled and stop- and seemed to be talking to thin air! Also, I used my bicycle brakes as car signals whenever I made a turning! (After all that training, I never not put on my signals when driving now.)


I cannot describe the joy I felt when I finally got THIS. The licence to my childhood dream~ I'll always enjoy driving, no matter what old drivers say!


*atm*

Thanks For The Memories

dEaR jUmJuM...

Jum2 is a high school graduate! I can hardly believe it. It feels weird knowing that next year I can not enroll myself in any school. Weesah free!

As a whole, I think high school sort of sucked, except the awesome friends part. So here we go. Compilation of most profound moments.....

PETROSAINS SHOW COMPETITION!

Freda and I were NUTS to enter this. We had no idea what we were supposed to do, just hantam-ing and only finalizing the experiments we were gonna perform the day before. Imagine our utter delight when the phone call came to inform us we qualified for finals in KL! We really let ourselves go crazy, doing whatever we thought might be entertaining on stage. (And we knocked down three flower pots during our performance, no kidding!) What made this so memorable were the strangers that came up to us to say that ours was among the shows that they enjoyed. (Oh yea babe!) And the judges in both stages declared that Freddy and I had 'very good chemistry together'. Awwww. I'll always remember that!

SPORTS DAY

Sports day was always fun. =) The best one would have to be the form 5 one, in which a group of us sat by the track with umbrellas and caps in tow, yelling for all we were worth! Oh and Joshua and I went around making stupid videos. That sports day was the first time in history that I wasnt rushing to go home. David, Lionel and I had to stay back til everything was cleared. When we reached school to keep the stuff it was already pitch black and David was trying to scare me. Haha, That was fun. Aloe vera gel!!~

ST JOHN

St John was always a little bitter-sweet for me. Hard to explain why. But had lots of fun too =) I LOVE MARCHING. It's like the only exercise I actually did throughout high school, oh except for the next entry... And I'll miss the Joyce-Weiwei-Biqi-Jacq-Lydia team!!

THE CRAZY MEETINGS IN BP

We had some AWESOME times in there. David and his random, dirty, extraordinary jokes (especially about D. Poodle) and ideas...ugh. But we did do a lot of work in BP too, dont get me wrong!! It wasnt a joy ride. And we had quarrels and bei song-ness once in a while. But I think we did okay. I never thought we'd pull through. I'll miss working with you guys!

BEING NOOB PREFECTS IN FORM 2

Seriously. Look at those form 2 kids! They have the same serious, oh-i'm-so-important faces that we used to have too. I really smile to see them. It was fun though, ponteng-ing to look for Ms Wee over the smallest of matters. I distinctly remember that last day before CNY holidays, students were let out early and prefects left last in an attempt to avoid students letting off firecrackers, and we were walking towards the front gate, the school empty around us, the excitement of CNY bubbling within us, while we were singing at the top of our lungs! I dont know why but that is my clearest memory of being a pengawas in f2 LOL.

(Oh btw my clearest memory of being a f5 prefect? Lying down on one of the huge black sofas at BCCK, covering my face with one hand and scolding D. Poodle under my breath, not caring how I looked. Why? She forced us to go for the waitressing training and I had fever!)

DEBATE!

Debate will always be my baby! Love love love it from the first debate in form 1 (against Audrick who was tired of rebutting our POIs and ended up saying 'yea yea you're right I agree'!) even though we didnt go as far as I hoped to, it was fun. Even the tiresome recruiting of speakers, training, battling with D. Poodle (and trying hard not to let her have the satisfaction of seeing me cry!), and the endless days and sleepless nights the week before competition. Seriously I never

felt so stressed out before, not even for SPM. But it was worth it. And Joshua, we were a good team, you and I. Thanks lots for elevating me when I was down =)

PASCA PMR

Best days of high school!!! Seriously. We were all nice and thin and fair due to all that studying! Even the sandwich making and newpapers innovating activities at school were cool cause at least we were together with friends!...and we were so carefree. I'd give anything to be 15 again =((

SWIMMING COMPETITION

This was a big fat JOKE from the start, thanks to our Form5CrazinessPlan, in which we were supposed to do bizarre things in our last year. We suffered badly bruised bodies and sia soi-ed ourselves...but ultimately our Freda-Cam-Joyce-Jacq team won 3rd in freestyle relay! Heh. Take that, you expert swimmers!

VALENTINE'S DAY 2011

Best V's day ever! Bought bars and bars of chocolate and spent a whole afternoon threading paper stars together for the people I love. Best of all was at night when we all went to Delizze after tuition and took tons of pictures..aaand received my first flower from a guy! Hee. Thanks Bii =D

THE LAUGHING EQUATION

TLE was formed on 18/01/09, in form 3. The members are called Lenians, consisting of Haha (Freda; cause she laughs so much and so loud!), Hehe (Camellia; cause she's the

most ladylike of us all, plus she's got an unusual sense of humour.), Huhu (Me; cause I CRY too much), and Hoho (Pik Ai; why? I also dunno....heh.)

This was just after my personal Dark Ages, when I did horrrrrrible things and was feeling super ashamed and down, so the Lenians really helped me get back on my feet. Seriously, I dont know what I would have done without them. Love die you babes's!!

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES,

*atm*