小枫叶…看世界

“Hey… What are you girls doing? Ready?” it was G calling from the lobby of our hotel, Park Royal where the reunion dinner was held.

“We are almost ready… Give us a few more minutes” I replied. After putting down the phone, Iv, my room-mate and I scampered to give a finishing touch to our make up and tra-da… we are ready!!!

On our way down, we knocked a few times on the door of room 741, occupied by KK, just a few doors away from our 745 room… “I AM BATHING… WILL JOIN YOU ALL LATER…” KK shouted from within. Oh!!! I thought normally girls will take longer time to get ready, but this time round, the roles were reversed, KK was still getting ready. Hmmm…. Oh.. ya.. Just remembered, he needed about 3 hours to comb his hair in order to have the “Hawaii Five-O” or the “Terminator” effect, to which the rest of the guys like G, Boston and Kok were ooing and ahying for… Guys also can be jealous one, you know…

Further down the corridor, we met Kok and his 5-year old “mould”, his son who looks exactly like him, hence his “mould”. We were trying very hard to convince his son that we are “姊姊” (che che, translation = just a bit older than him) and not aunty. And I tell you, his son is such an adorable boy because he really called us “姊姊”, good boy!!! Well done…Kok, you have thought your son very well!!!

Walking towards the hotel lounge, we could see from far, a guy dengan gayanya yang bermutu dan berkeunggulan sitting on the sofa. And as we stole another glance at this guy, we realized that it was actually G, looking very smart in his white shirt and black pants. (Ahem…!!! G was the Organizing Chairman of this reunion, so I need to “angkat” him bit bit. But bit bit only nia, many many no… Cos he memang ada gaya ma… but please don’t reveal this to him, ok? Shhhhhhh…..!)

After that, the 3 of us walked together to Tamarind Brasserie, where the actions were all going to be that night. As the waitress directed us to the table, we could see Motor Keong sitting comfortably there with his wife and son and WAIT!!!! Boston had staged a mutiny and “rampas” the “Chairman” seat that was rightfully G’s. @#%&^*^#!!! Please excuse my language… This Boston huh, really Form 3 mia student la… Everybody wear sui sui and ean tao ean tao (translation = beautipu and hensome), he only wear his form 3 black Adidas T-shirt and Bermuda pants!!! 真是成何體統呢??? 哎!!! He as a committee member of this reunion, sekurang-kurangnya, wear la tuxedo! The situation worsen as Kok strolled in, haiya… ini semua Form 3 mia students betul betul tak tau apa itu dress code, mesti hantar dia orang pergi grooming course! Sama dengan Boston, itu Kok juga pakai Bermuda pants and a cotton shirt, and worst, dia jugak pakai itu sandals, alamak… Oi!!! You two huh, kita susah susah tempah hotel 5 bintang, bayar mahal mahal, nak gaya gaya mia reunion dinner, lu dua orang pulak pakai macam ini… Haiyo… ah mama, ai yo yo… itu “ni ah sing mah yi re care” la… (Translation from Tamil = You don’t look nice, I hope I got it right!).

Tak apa la… maaf saja mereka la… Itu dua memang sudah macam ni sejak “10” tahun yang lalu. 江山易改,本性難移!

Next to arrive was KK, after hours of combing and styling his hair, finally he made it. Then came L Choo and Chun, all 11 of us and the dinner began….

Mid way through dinner, I was thinking of filing a serious complaint with the Management of Park Royal. You see, each time I took some salmon sashimi, they tend to go missing every time I turned around. Park Royal, being a 5-star hotel should not have any rodent especially in its restaurants, but in my case, this rodent was very rampant. So, I decided to trap this rodent by pretending to go to the buffet table to get some food but at the same time kept my eyes on my sashimi. Finally, I managed to catch the big, I meant REALLY BIG RODENT by the name of BOSTON!!! That fellow was so lazy to go to the buffet table that he resorted to stealing from me!!! Id%oT!

Even though the food was just so so considering the price we paid for it but the fellowship that we had with each other on that night was priceless. Friends that we have not met for the past 10 years, so much to say and yet so little time. After we finished the main course, we moved outside to the pavilion to continue with our fellowshipping. G was brilliant to bring along his guitar as one by one, we started to sing especially songs from our era like 哭沙, 恰似你的溫柔, 童年, 新不了情, 月亮代表我的心, and lots of others which I do not know. You see, my China not good, so China songs also suffered. It was so nice of Motor Keong to order 2 bottles of wine to belanja us… but unfortunately alcohol and I do not go hand in hand. If I drink it, I would have to search for G to 救命…

At about midnight, Boston aka Snow White, had to go home to get his beauty sleep or else his baju would turned into rags and his ride would become pumpkins and rats. No.. la… Boston’s stomach began to act up and so he had to abandon us and left early. See!!! I should have complained to the Management of Park Royal !!! After our friends left us one by one, there were only 4 of us left and we proceeded to the beach and had moonlight chat… G was still playing his guitar and we continue to sing under the moonlight. Romantic??? Too bad they were not our spouses. And our dear KK commented that both Iv and I looked younger than our real age. He said we looked 21… which made Iv and I rocketed to cloud 9… only to plummet to below the ground when he continued his sentence with “under the moonlight” Halo, En. KK, whether under or above the moonlight, we still look young!!! OK??? Get that?!

Time and tide wait for no man… Even though it was such an enjoyable night, being under the moonlight, being with our dear friends, enjoying the cool sea breeze, singing and reminiscing the good old school days and having the school girl/boy type of feelings again but every thing good must come to an end… and so we bid each other good night and went on our separate ways…relunctantly… and that ended our reunion dinner….

Last episode coming soon……

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…)

Having said that, my experience on 21 June 2008 was totally different… I was happy and excited to be able to step into my school compound again… Have I gone nuts??? No! That’s because I was there as a “VISITOR”!!! Haha!!! Not a student!!!

As early as 8 a.m. everyone ie Boston, Iv and KK, was already in front of Evergreen Laurel Hotel waiting for G and I. We were late because I couldn’t wake up and G, my Tour Guide cum Taxi Driver had to wait for me to get ready, cat some ICI paint and pakai sui sui. After some “one two tali som”, we finally decided to travel in Boston’s car. Actually the driving factor was the awesome DVD player in his Kia Sorento, number plate KBW xx (his initials), cool isn’t it?! G sat in front and together with Boston, kept us entertained the whole journey to Alor Star. They, the 4 of them, sang lots of songs in the car, mostly Jacky Cheung’s songs, which i do not know. So I just sat quietly listening to them… which by the way was out of the norm considering my “chi cha” (talkative) nature …

As Boston’s slowly maneuvered his car into the path leading to the school, I began to experience the twilight zone and déjà vu feeling. Standing in front of the guard house was none other than our “楊過” (Kok) , my “former bf” from 1A Hijau class. Because of him, I was dubbed “小龍女”, which was quite glamorous during those days when the show “神刁俠侶”was popular. But today, if you call me that name, I will ambil tali, tie you up, take my parang and chop you into pieces!!!! Kok was still as youthful as ever and could even pass as a student without being noticed. He was still as playful and funny as always, nothing in him has changed; he too has stood the test of time. It was great meeting him again, after “10” years.

From far, we could see our Maths Teacher, Mr. Tan SH aka 陳Sir arriving in his Toyota Altis. He also still looked the same as how I remembered him, no signs of aging. Iv was so, so very “the” excited and happy to see 陳Sir. He was her “idol” (偶像). Actually the main reason for the trip was to meet up with 陳Sir. He is our hero and all of us love and respect him dearly. All of us could remember his cool and unique teaching style. Everyday, he would walk into the classroom (ala matrix style) without anything in his hands. And as soon as he settled the class down, he would start writing on the board, all the mathematics formulas without even referring to any books or notes. He used to give free “massages” to cheeky students like Kok & TKS to relax those little muscles that they had at that time. He was a great teacher and together with our form teacher Mrs. Yee, were really concerned about the future and welfare of their students, always giving us advice, not only in our studies but also in our lives.

We strolled through the school. Sad to say, many things have changed. The basketball court that used to be beside the canteen and the football field had somehow been sacrificed to make way for more classrooms. The biggest change however was the landscape surrounding the school. What was previously padi field has now been turned into housing estate with houses over 2½ storeys high. Walking towards our old classroom, nostalgia inadvertently set in … It was a pity to see all the old desks and chairs in our old 5A1 classroom in depleted state and the book shelf at the back of the class missing. Sigh… That was the classroom that I used to go 5 times per week, 4 weeks per month and 10 ½ months per year… the “Army Camp”…

I could still vaguely remember the ambiance of the class; the quiet ones were mostly in front while the noisy ones placed themselves at the back. Those noisy ones included Boston, G, Kok and TKS. Most of our classmates have aliases, such as Butterfly @ Motor Keong, Mo Mo Lu, 西文欽 (Simon Kheng), Ka Chuak (Cocroach), Siam Ong aka Boston, Chicken Wee, Katak, Lampin, 關公, Lion Lee, Penyu. As suggested by the names, our class was indeed like a Zoo…

“Haiyo!!! beh tahan liao, 吐白沫!!!” (copyright© by Dr. G) (translation: Aiyo!!! Cannot stand it any longer, vomiting white bubbles now!)

“That one ah, you kuasa dua, I kuasa tiga, bigger than you!!!”
“Huh?! You kuasa tiga, I kuasa 100!!!”
“You kuasa 100, I kuasa infinity!!!”
“You think I’m scared of you ah? You kuasa infinity, I kuasa infinity over your kuasa infinity!!!” (These of course were quoted from the boys, also courtesy of Dr. G)

“Boyz… haiya… tak boleh tahan they all la…真無知…白痴!!!” (This comment obviously came from the girls)

Phrases like these were very common during those days; the boys obviously have not mature yet at that time…

Boston’s favourite pantun was and still is: