Thank You For The Memories Part 1

Come 18th January 2008, I would have been in Australia for ten years. It's hard to believe that I have been away for a decade because it only seemed like five years ago, but this is solid proof that time does fly. The most wonderful thing besides the fact that everyone is mostly still happy and healthy, is that no one has drastically changed in appearance or much in character. It is very satisfying to know that most of my friends have remained who they are, and probably so have I, but then, that again, is up to my friends to make that judgment. I may have matured in many areas of thought, but like many of my fellow mates, the little boy still lives within.

I would like to do a small introduction on each group of friends with the photos accompanying the respective postings. When I first started writing this, I wondered where I would head. After writing two sections, I realised that I was mapping out my history of friends in a chronological order, which has turned out to be very fun. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Oldies but Goodies

Unofficially, we call ourselves the "Group of Seven". We were all studying at the same secondary school, Victoria School, and even though I am the only one who has been in the same class with all six other members, we somehow got together for four or five consecutive Christmases at my home, when my parents threw our short lived Christmas celebration. I strongly believed it was during then, and Leslie's foray into photography that cemented our friendships. Hey, come to think of it, we were all "pioneer" models for Leslie when he first started photo shooting.

A couple of us, like Leslie and I, were misfits at school. We were not the populars nor the victims, but somehow, I just feel that we didn't fit into either group. To make things worse, we weren't very sporty too, preferring to spend our time drowning in Japanese music, acerbating our misfit status in our classes. Strangely, we are also the only two right now that are not living in Singapore and pursuing our careers elsewhere. Leslie has moved leaps and bounds while I am pretty satisfied with what I have in my life at the moment.

I have been given the nickname of a chilli padi because of my size and also my bitchiness. I believe I received great training from these group of friends who taught me that there is always a comeback to everything that one can serve. My family members actually enjoy the witty banter that goes on and we can all spend hours laughing over conversations which can unfortunately sometimes venture into nonsense. On the most recent venture, this is a short snippet of conversation that Terence shared with my mother.

We were listening to the radio reporting the winning numbers of the lottery that Sunday night. At the end, Terence shared the news that Mike's niece had topped her secondary school "Normal" stream students (who have to complete a five year secondary school education) and will now be promoted to the Express stream (four years).

Mum: That is fabulous news. I am sure her parents must be overjoyed. This is better than striking lottery and winning a prize.

Terence: No Auntie, it isn't. If you compare how much a year's school fees cost (public school - possibly less than $100), I'd rather strike lottery and win big money. She can stay back for an extra year for all I care. (All laugh)

We have such a long history of over the two decades that we have shared our lives, and it never feels like home until I catch up with close friends like Richie, Mark, Mike and Terence. We are still looking forward to the day that we have all seven people at one location again, but I guess we'll still have to wait.



[Photo: Mike, Terence and I @ Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Parlor on Dempsey Road]