Past... and Present

“10” years ago, I had no idea at all what was to become of my classmates or my own self. I really have not given any thought to it. But “10” years later today, I am proud to say that I have such an elite group of friends. Yes!!! All my classmates have become successful professionals such as doctors, engineers, pharmacists, accountants, bankers, investors, financial advisors, businessman and no, Boston, I didn’t forget u, lawyer… oh oh sorry… barrister. Despite their successes, the angle of their noses did not raise 45 degree or eyes looking at the sky. They are still very much the same, humble and very down to earth. Ok la, to be fair, some may have changed, but those that I still cross path with, didn’t. Continuing from farewell to 陳 Sir and our alma mater… we were on our way to Sungai Petani to meet up with our Cardiologist friend, Dr. LYC. I didn’t think about this fact up till now that I was so privileged to be traveling in a car with a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer and a super woman*. So, if I vomit, I have G to tend to me; if the air conditioning system breaks down, KK will take care of it and if both also cannot do their job properly, I can get Boston to issue them legal letters. If they counter sue me and I cannot win, super woman Iv will come to my rescue and fly me away… hahaha!!! LYC was one of the high achievers in our school, having scored the best results both in SPM and STPM. And the best part is, he is one year younger than most of us as he “jumped” from standard 6 straight to form 1 without having to go thro’ remove class. He was a quiet student. Hardly talked. Even though I sat with him the whole year in 5A1, we hardly conversed. And though he is now a Cardiologist, I can sincerely tell you that I didn’t sense any arrogance in him. When I called him out of the blue after “10” years, he could still remember me and he is still as friendly, humble and down to earth as he used to be, 真正的好人一個. I could still remember during our SPM time, when everyone else was busy studying and minding their own business, LYC would unselfishly shared his notes, his reference books and even notified me on the questions he spotted and thought would be asked in the exam. And as a result, I scored As in the subjects that he “enlightened” me upon. Though I was, am and will always be grateful for what he had done, I have never thank him personally, which is very bad of me. Therefore, I would now like to take this opportunity to thank him, “Dr. LYC, I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for your unselfish and gracious act of sharing and guiding me during our SPM exam “10” years ago. 萬二分的感謝和感激你的好心和好意, 我永遠都會記得你對我的恩情.” Hmmm… talking about SPM and STPM, there were a few confessions on that morning we visited our school. One of our dear friends, I won’t name names, confessed that IT (I cannot state he or she) climbed into the storeroom that stored musical instruments to “borrow” some cymbals for ITS drum set but “forgot” to return them even after all these years. Another confessed that there were a few “cooperative works” during SPM and STPM to ensure that the answers to the questions were “synchronized”. This was done, I guess, to lighten the burden of the teachers marking those papers. And then there were also some “ear pulling” and “hands exercises” during some oral exam. And I for one didn’t even realize these things happening right under my very nose… The one incident that I could remember best during my 5A1 days, was during the Chemistry practical exam, where we were given assam boi (pickled plum) in order to induce the production of saliva which would then be used for some test. What test? Errr… I just couldn’t remember, maybe litmus??? Anyway, there was this boy who sat in front of me, he was from another class. I think he didn’t read the instructions carefully because instead of smelling the assam boi to induce the production of saliva, he just took the assam boi, put it in his mouth, chew for some time and then spitted the whole thing plus his saliva into the test tube!!! After that he just sat there laughing himself away… I guess he thought that was funny… I was like huh??? Stunt and didn’t know how to react… whether to laugh or to cry… Anyway, initially we planned to visit 2 more friends in Lunas, but because we were running out of time and a bit tired, even though we are still young and the fact that we are only "28", we had no choice but to call off the plan and went right back to Penang. I was so tired that I dozed off in the car and if anyone were to dump me in the padi field or into the sea I wouldn’t have known. Heh heh!!! But I could remember vaguely hearing G and KK argued about political matters. Men and politics, there’s no ending… I must tell you that Boston is exceptionally and extremely “good” in giving directions. I asked him for the way to the famous MacAlister Road "char kuoy teow" because the last time when my family and I visited Penang, we tried to get there but because the roads had all been changed to one-way streets, we failed to locate the place and hence no "char kuoy teow". Therefore, this time round I was determined to get it right. However, to my total disappointment, every road that we were on and at every cross or T junction, he will direct me to go "straight" even if going straight meant knocking into someone’s houses or plunging into the sea. Sigh… Boston, you must really work on your vocabulary; there are other words like turn right and turn left in English one, you know??? Anyway, as long as he could send us back to our hotel, I think he’s still ok la… and indeed, he did get us back to where we were supposed to be, so NOT BAD, BOSTON!!! After reaching the hotel, we took our beauty rest in order that we might look ean tao and sui sui (translation – handsome and beautiful) for da Big Nite… (again, to be continue…)

Note :- Super Woman* - A good wife, great mum plus an enterprising business woman