all about moulding

Last night i had a primary six class reunion, the first one in a long time and the biggest one by very far. It all started around a week ago, i got a call from one of my old classmates whom i had not talked to, let alone seen, since circa post-PSLE time 1995, to inform me about a class reunion barbeque at a pavilion near the house of our former class teacher. Being one for these sort of things i made it a point to go, even though the house was around my old haunt - the North East Hougang/Serangoon/Sengkang area, or in other words, VERY FAR AWAY FROM MY HOUSE. Ah but rekindling of broken bonds supercedes distance anytime, so...

It was great to see so many people whom i have not seen in very long - in fact think at least a third of the people who turned up were people whom i had not seen since 1995 - a frighteningly long eleven years ago (which gasp- is almost half my life ago). Mdm Azlina, our class teacher included. [At this point i'd just like to make the note (which i know i've made before) that my primary school is ROSYTH school - that's R-O-S-Y-T-H, and not roadside or lao sai or any of that stuff] Most people were rather recognizable, though maybe that's because since this was an old class gathering, we knew who to expect to see, so we could agar agar guess who the random person making his/her way towards us was... (of course - and i'm being honest here - i look roughly the same as eleven years ago, so no one had any trouble recognizing me)

My class and i circa 1995

Eleven years on...

Would like to think we look much better now heh...

And you'd agree, wouldn't you? =p

Was very heartening to hear everyone's, particularly Mdm Azlina's reflections on our class eleven years ago, and how things have changed since then. Personally, it's rather hard to believe that now i have an ex-classmate who should be getting married soon, one doing her masters, one who smokes, a regular, a chemist, and many others too...

Speaking of jobs and majors - i dunno why almost everyone either raised an eyebrow or grimaced at my mention that i am a history major and am gonna teach - hmm... Am i really worlds apart from them? Well maybe, considering that the dominant language there was indeed Mandarin - which reminded me of the fact that i was the only one from our class (supposedly the best em2 class) to be relegated to the 'special' Chinese class in the depths of the building - where i eventually toiled hard enough at the %$@# language to get a C - which in my eyes was even better methinks than getting As and A*s for the other subjects... In fact, that was one of the things that some people remembered about me, that i struggled and struggled with the language - well, just like my appearance, think that my command of the language, or rather the lack of it, too has not changed much since then... (Oh and just to note, all this started even BEFORE i had even stepped into an AC school thank you very much...)

As one of the first to arrive, and being a guy, i naturally felt obliged to help out in the setting up - and from this experience i learned how to fan dying but glowing embers into flame (and btw i tell you it's hard work - woke up this morning with arm muscles aching to a degree comparable to the time when i was kena tekan in taurus coy in bmt), as well as how to skewer chicken wings (which thankfully turned out far better than the other time a few years ago when i was tasked to skewer of all things, PRAWNS - yes - PRAWNS - so then i managed to withstand breathing through my nose for the whole duration, only to then accidentally puncture myself with a sharp and short spine at the backside of the wretched creature while attempting to skewer it- which of course did no good to my aversion to them...)

Oh, and another thing, many of them drove there - which was enough to get me kicking myself again and again for procrastinating getting a licence up till now, and probably till long after i return as well...

Then today was the first day of school for me - honestly i dunno how in future i am gonna do it - cos if school life entails reaching the place by early 7ish in the morning, that means if i want to do my quiet time first then i'll have to get up around early 5ish every day - which would in the long run entail sleeping by latest eleven pm on average - highly impossible for me...

So needless to say i couldn't wake up early enough to do my qt prior to leaving the house, but anyway got there and then i had to make a conscious effort to adopt a more serious persona - for exameple when they introduced us to the school, i was about to give them one of my cheesy grins that i normally give when i bump into people along the corridors of nus, when i realised that i should be more teacher-ish, so i just smiled simply and raised my hand instead. Yup it had to be Mr Tay, not blur and moody me who was there today...

But anyway, it was quite enjoyable i must say, even though the work in store promises to be a lot and the learning curve very expotentially shaped... The staff are generally very friendly and accomodating people as are the other three guys also attached to the school (all easties =). Haven't had a chance to really see how the boys are like, but think they should be fine lah - or at least i hope...

(Oh, and i must say that you really should check out an all guys school the morning after the world cup finals - if you get my drift... I'd like to think that yours truly, not giving two hoots about the match, would be wide awake in comparison for once heh...)