Things change...

This is a post that has been in draft mode since 7/6/05.

Sometimes i wonder what has been going on with my old friends. You know? The guys and gals from primary school, the exchange students, the foreign students, etc...

Teo Jia Yun
She was my first real crush. She was "relatively (primary school)" mature and quite cute. Her smile would brighten up anyone's day. Even after she had braces put on, her smile was still beautiful. Never got the guts to ask her out (Probably would've been to the playground or something. We both live(d) in Simei. haha). Guys, if your parents ever tell you to not get a girlfriend and focus on your studies first, screw that. It's easier to try and then make mistakes when you're younger.

Farhan Ibrahim
Farhan was a good friend in kindergarten but we kinda didn't talk much once we were in primary 3 because we were in different classes. When we did talk it was like we were old friends. He always used to get me birthday presents and I always forgot to get any for him.

Tupaz Shaun Antonio
A good friend back in the day up till we graduated primary school and he stopped going to catechism class (Sunday School). Used to belanja me erasers, fishballs and other small trinkets that kids like. Mixed up kid who was coping relatively well with his family issues. He eventually started hanging out with the wrong crowd and dropped to EM3 and started 'bad habits'. Sent him an sms once while I was in Secondary 2 and got back the reply that he was in a "different church". Haven't heard from him since. He was/is a good kid.

Shafeeq
Shafeeq was a dude whose voice never fully broke and who walked funny but was brilliant and somewhat cheeky. I remember the conversation that we had about how "Primary 5 is the time when the girls start to grow". lol. Good times. He also created his first simple C program in primary 5. I never really appreciated it's creation till I started C programming 2 years later.

Fazli
Fazli was a good friend in the early years but we grew apart because we were in different classes. A good kid with leadership potential. There was once where he over stood his boundaries though and I had to put him in line. He learnt from that and I had great respect for him for that.

He was also a good player at the childish game (not childhood game.. muahahaha) of "Police and Thief, Guns Style". Well there was actually no name for the game so I just came up with one. It's where we separate into two teams, police or thief - didn't really matter, and we would then fold paper bullets and propel them to our opposing team with ordinary rubber bands. It's sort of like a catapult but in a catapult, you put the bullet in the "holder" and fire whereas in this game, you "hang" the "bullet" on the rubber band, pull back, and fire.

Good techniques for this game include using good quality paper or 'drawing block' to make the bullets and using two (red) rubber bands or a short industrial (yellow) rubber band.

Good times. FYI, getting hit in the nipple is not a good feeling.

He also lives(/d) in Simei.

Sulaiman
Was the first guy I met in primary school where we had a test on day one. I remember asking him what is air(pronounced ehr) in my Malay test and then he told me it was not air as in atmosphere but air(pronounced aeeyier) as in the Malay word for water.

Was also the first guy to be kicked out of the Gymnastics ECA(Extra Curricular Activity) due to "size".

Muzafar (possibly wrong spelling)
Good guy who was friendly and always slung a shoe bag filled with his books and stuff over his shoulder. I still do the same now and again following his style. Also lives(/d) in Simei.

Rudy Hendra Saleh
Short and smart kid with bug teeth. Good kid and was not socially stupid despite his looks. Was the first guy to write in my "diary", which is stowed away and not in use btw, where he wrote a poem which I didn't understand due to the advanced use of English where conjunctions had been left out. He called me "a pig left behind". Bastard.. haha

Pei Zhen
A distant friend since Kindergarten, she was a nice person.

I wasn't excellent at gymnastics (because I didn't really enjoy doing it as a performance - although doing those tricks was cool) but I had good PR so to speak and I could get by so I usually ended up doing the annual performances (Prize Giving Day and etc). Teachers usually liked me. I don't know why. Well, anyway, one day, while training for an event, I cut my foot on a rusty lid covering a microphone point on the stage. I told my teacher about it and he just told me to go sit it out.

Pei Zhen on the other hand came over to have a look and asked me if I was alright. It's silly and if you look at the previous paragraph, long winded as well, but I felt really happy at that point that someone actually cared.

Alex and Joe
Joe was a loud mouthed Chinese idiot who was a jerk not because he was a jerk but because he was wild. I remember one time I was playing soccer with him and he kept on pushing me to get the ball(was a tennis ball) till finally I just shouted "CEBAI!". It felt good. haha

Then there was Alex. Alex was a foreign kid from God knows where, possibly Germany or Sweden due to his accent who, when in primary 1, was an extremely shy kid. I knew him through gymnastics. But when I got into the same class as him in Primary 5, he had transformed into another Joe. A clone with the same loud-mouth brash attitude.

They were still kids though so attitudes like this were kinda cool even though they were simultaneously annoying.

Ridwan
Ridwan was a good friend with quite a fair bit of wit and creativity. He however was not a follower but a leader and sometimes we clashed. Last I saw of him, he was out with the wrong crowd and smoking. I saw his brother once and mistook him for him(rephrase that in your own mind) and spent about 5 minutes lecturing the poor boy about the good ole times. Ridwan was short you see.

Was also great at manipulating people but didn't use it on his friends... much. Whether he uses it now i have no idea.

He also cracked up whenever I said the self-made word of Shittish.

Sufree (possibly wrong spelling)
Sufree was a short kid who was very easy going and consequently prone to teasing. Good kid. Saw him once out of the bus I was in while I was in Secondary School. We recognised each other and waved hellos. Haven't seen him since.

Nasir (possibly wrong spelling)
Good kid who was always trying to look cool and lives in the same block as me. Extremely short and funny and had a good throw/hook. I saw him a few times and his voice had broke tremendously. These days, if we see each other, we just smile and continue walking on because I guess we have nothing to talk about.

Khidir
Good kid who also short but less tolerable to teasing that Sufree. Extremely pliable to external influences. Even walks like his sister with toes pointed inwards.

Shobana
I remember her because I used to rhyme her name with banana. Good kid who, like me, was fond of making fun of our music teacher's name, Mrs Thong. Not making fun of the meaning of the word(we didn't know what it meant), but rather with the pronunciation. Mrs Thong insisted we pronounce her name with the correct intonation. Had some good times with that stuff.

Also was in my first play with me where I had to wear a skirt-like item of clothing like a tube top and pretend to be the "fox" in the play. Fuck shit. I hated plays ever since. I was actually the narrator and was quite happy with it till the "fox" guy came late one day and I had to read his lines. Fuck shitty day. I still hate plays till this fucking day. It's too bad really. Had I not been humiliated like that I might have liked that shit. I remember asking my mother to take me out but she refused. I still hate her for that. After that play she wanted to enrol me in another one but I gave her a firm no and nearly threw a fit so she changed her mind. Smart woman.

This is also why I hate wearing costumes. Bad memories. Fuck.

Megana (possibly wrong spelling)
Barring her odd sounding name which didn't seem so odd when younger, this kid was an intellectual. Was also one of those who introduced me to a few Animorph books. Her home phone number is also nearly identical to mine with only one number being different.



The following names I wrote in this article at the start but I have since forgotten who they are. I remember their names.. just not their faces.
-Sufiyan
-Sufli (I think is my brother's friend)

I still have many of their neoprints. Most of the guys here also used to be Tamiya(mini-4wd cars that run on a track) buddies. They have since stopped this hobby I believe. Too bad that I have since advanced way beyond them although I can't really compete in competitions because my cars are built for speed and not for stability. They are really fast.

Cherish your youth. Being an adult is fun. But so is being a kid.

Cheers and Happy New Year.