Memories..... moments frozen in time....

Yesterday late at night, I decided to look through some of my photo albums..... Picked up a few and started flipping through them. A flood of memories came gushing through my mind and it was like I was brought back to that moment in time.... I realized that I have many fond memories of growing up....

My journey yesterday began in my final year of high school.... St. Mary.... my alma mater... We have just been instructed to shift to a new location due to the buyover of our school's land for development... So off we went from the famous Golden Triangle of KL to a previously unknown place called Taman Intan Baiduri, Selayang. We had a choice, to transfer to a nearby school or to follow the school all the way to Selayang.... For me it was not a choice at all.... I have been studying in St Mary for the past 11 years and with one more year left, I couldnt even consider the thought of not completing it in St Mary. Many of the teachers left but many came along as well... Fortunately for me, many of my teachers were still with us.. So were quite a handful of my classmates... So we started the year 1998 with 23 student in the only science class in school...

It was a very different environment... it took quite a lot of getting used to.. First there was the 2 hours of public bus to endure before even reaching the school... then there was the change of status from a controlled school to an open school where all and sunshine may enroll... All our St. Marians history, traditions, cultures and rules were scorned by the newcomers... We were after all a school with 86 years of history at that time... We all cherished our traditions and rules... We had plenty of them... some were thought of as too strict and some were just laughed at.. but I really thought that, that was what made us St Marians.... Simple rules like only speaking either the english and malay language was ignored.... for the first time, the corridors were filled with chatters in mandarin, cantonese, tamil and every other language... Nobody was even bothered about the rules... But this was the one simple rule which made us St Marians who we are... A very well integrated inter-racial group of people.. because in the school it didnt matter what your race was... everyone understood everyone..... and that was the purpose of having such a rule.. Of course with that came additional benefits like an improved command of the english and malay language... we all definitely aced our oral examinations..... :)

As my journey through my album continued I came across a picture of my classmates in our performance gear ready for a teacher's day celebration.... We were doing the twist.... being an all girl school we were the boys and the girls too... there were lifts and throws.... it was one heck of a performance... Our beloved headmistress Ms Richards made a comment that made us beam with pride... "Girls, you have kept the spirit and tradition of St Mary with you". Nobody thought much of a teacher's day celebration at that time.. it was just a day that they didnt have to study.... But for us, every teacher's day was a very fun filled day with loads of memories... from the teacher's day song we always compose, to the performances which we took months to perfect up to the teachers' performance which were usually extremely hilarious..... All the newcomers were shocked that the teachers would perform and occasionally make a fool out of themselves just for the sake of entertainment.... but St Mary school teachers did... because we were a family... the barrier of a student and teacher relationship is not always clear.... :)

Then came the sports day.... once again there was a huge disagreements on the marchers to wear the skirts which have been the uniform for all marcher for as long as I can remember... there were complains that it was indecent, too short and etc.... but we have always had it that way.. as far as I can remember.... no complains were lodged, at least not to the extent where a compromise could not be made.. there was after all a few categories of events which took place.. We had the athletics (the supposedly gifted ones), the non-athletics (not so gifted ones), the cheerleaders (the pretty ones who can dance real well), the marchers (the ones who liked being drilled for hours over hours to perfect their march, or just those who couldn't make it to the any other teams) and the arts division (in charge of our badges and all other decorative items). So you see, if marching was not your cup of tea, then you could have gone for another team... But in the end we had to for the first time in history see our marchers with skirts on the outside and track bottoms on the inside... ewww.....

There are actually many more stories about my life in St. Mary but I shall leave that for the next posting.... ST. MARY; I SERVE

Next page of my album? University...... Where did I go? UTM, Skudai, Johor.... spent 4 years there.... the most eventful year was of course the first... It was my first experience living away from home... I was living in the hostel called KTDI.... during the first week of orientation, we had to wear these really ugly long black skirt and white shirt... and because orientation was for a whole week and we only had 2 pairs of each... it was a wash and re-wear cycle the entire week... nobody bothered to even iron their shirts coz we were too tired by the end of the day and washing took enough of an effort.... The boys and girls were separated by a cloth in the hall... the the boys always had to walk in front first then only follow by the girls... (such an un-gentlemanly practice) it was all quite a lot to take in... then I was selected (God knows why... I cant remember) for a public speaking session on the pros and cons of the internet... I created such a big commotion when I mentioned that the internet is misleading at times and certain sites are not what you think they would be... Like if you were to type in NASA as part of a web address... you will not be connected to NASA as thought but a porn site.. I am not sure about now but at that time it was... after I menti0ned that, everyone remember this girl in the yellow kebaya who gave out the address of a porn site... what a way to start university huh? It really wasnt my intentions.. oops....

Then there was the lurking black Van... can you imagine, I got a 4 points de-merit for talking with a guy outside my hostel past midnight... we were standing at least 2 feet away from each other.... you know who you are if you are the guy who was talking to me... haha!!!
There was the weekly visits to KTHO for our laundry.. you would think only Elaine & I are the only 2 who do not bother to wash our own laundry... actually there are a lot of ppl but unfortunately amongst my coursemates there was only me and elaine... hate washing clothes by hand... they become extra wrinkled.... Oh and not forgetting that everytime we walk to KTHO, we would pass the ATMA (army students) quarters and they always came out of their hostels only in their towel to hang their clothes or to get their haircut by a fellow ATMA. One fine day, this guy just finished his haircut as we were walking past and he didnt notice us so he stood up, unfolded his towel and gave it 2 shakes... hahah!!! Unfortunately I didnt see anything coz I wasn't really paying attention until the it happened and he noticed us and quickly ran in.... but it was funny.....

Oh and who can forget those illegal trip up a certain little hill to catch the view of our mini Disneyland in UTM... haha!! those were rare but fun... :)

It was also in UTM that I did the most unlady like thing I could ever have thought of... Our hostels were right next to our faculty which unfortunately was on top of a hill... and whoever the civil engineer was, he decided to place the staircase on the far end of the hill so that we actually has to walk all across the hill to climb up the stairs to our faculty... and me being me... and add elaine to that equation... actually it is usually my fault la.. we were quite often late... so what do we do? Of course use the short cut... what was the short cut? It was the drain(actually longkang is a better word) which went all the way up to the faculty as well and was very similar to a staircase.... so up we went everytime we were late... I dun think it was even considered climbing but more like trudging up the drain.. even if we were in our baju kurung as well... hahah!! I remember those days well... by the time we were up, we were panting like mad.... those drain staircases were steep!!! haha!! Most unlady like...tsk tsk tsk...

Of course when you join Uni you also end up having seniors and in UTM, it was even more evident as all newcomers were assigned a "kai kor" or 2... I had 2... they were to take care of you, pass their notes down, their text books down so that we need not buy so many.... mine were very caring ones.... My fondest memory of them would be during one of the nights when I had to walk to my Chinese class late at night and I accidently fell into a drain and busted my shin quite badly... Elaine made a call to my kai kor Jeffrey(also in my chinese class) and Shen Khong and immediately Jeffrey came running all the way (which was really quite a fair bit of distance) with this worried look on his face as if something really bad might have happened to me... It was so sweet... to know that someone whom a year ago didnt even know you could be so concerned for you... Then Shen Khong came in his bike and took me to the clinic... My wound actually needed a couple of stitches but it was the whole experience that was very memorable...

Many things happened to me during my life in University... I had my first blind date... had my first boyfriend.... met my best friend (still is til now)... experience my first culture shock.... experience my first mess night...went to mamak at 4am for countless days in a row... (hey, we were studying and got hungry!!).... was ragged for the first time.... walked an average of 5-7 km daily (campus was huge).... won my first gold medal in taekwondo( eventhough it was for taerobic... but it was the nationals).... met wonderful friends..... had 2 great kai kors and one great kai sailou... drove for more than an hour just for nasi lemak... (it was real good.. well worth the travel...) not forgetting my first house rental, my first car (WAG 262... I miss you!!).... my first time seeing a guy who was 1.96m tall.. he was as tall sitting as I was standing next to him while he was sitting down.... my first time having RM1.50 mixed rice (unbelievable? believe it!!).... hmmm... wonder whether it is still there.... oh and how could I forget... my first handphone... it was a Erricsson T26 i think... it was one of those really colour range of flip phone by Erricsson.. at that time Sony was not in the picture yet... Gosh... I am quite old aint I?

This posting could probably go on and on and on... reminiscence of those good old days... It is amazing what an album full of photos can invoke in you.... Take you down memory lane... and put a smile on your face.... Everyone should take this journey once in awhile... It is good for the soul...