Reminiscing my childhood

Reposting this from a post I posted some time ago on FB

#1
Missed the Taman Jurong times where we hang out downstairs of our block with the neighbourhood kids during lantern festivals to burn the paper lanterns.  Well...not intentionally.  The wind was too strong for small little us.  Someone's lantern would start burning and the entire gang would celebrate by throwing leaves and snails into the fire.

#2
Missed my primary school days where I would use a ruler to measure the shared desk, divide the number by 2, find the middle point and draw a line in between so that my classmate and I have an equal share of table. See...I'm always very fair.  But of course, if his stationery happens to cross the line, I will push it away...doesn't matter where I push it to!

#3
Missed those school bus days where there were no safety belts, all the kids would be running around the bus and we would be playing games....really really physical games :o)  Mum told me that the bus driver complained to her that I beat up the boys on the bus which I have absolutely no recollection of.  I mean, how would I....such a sweet little thing beat up rough little boys.  She re-enacted the conversation...
Bus driver: Aunty, your daughter beat up the boys in the bus
Mum: Why would she do such a thing?
Bus driver: The boys bullied her
Mum: Did she tell you that she was bullied?
Bus driver: Yes
Mum: Did you do anything?
Bus driver: No
Mum: Then you can't blame my daughter for taking things into her own hands
Hahahaa....I love my mum!

#4
Missed my paternal grandpa.  I would tagged along with him to the coffee shop and sit there eating my watery eggs while he chats with his friends.  He would never fail to buy me a box of preserved plums on the way home.  Oh and he was the one who taught me to pour the coffee onto the saucer and drink it from the saucer itself.  I still don't like coffee though.  It churns in my tummy.  Missed those times where I would get scolded for speaking dialect...only English and Mandarin was allowed in his presence.  So much for being the granddaughter of a court interpretor...lol

#5
Missed my paternal grandma.  I never got to see her when she passed on coz I was having my final papers.  My parents kept it from me.  When I knew it, she was already cremated but I flew back anyway.  I realised I didn't missed much of the funeral wake coz I dreamt that I actually attended it.  Missed helping her in the kitchen making love letters, kueh bangkit, pineapple tarts, nonya dumplings (mine would be the smallest and would never fail to burst in the water), tang yuan (mine would also be the smallest coz my hands were small when I was younger...they are still small...I could only reach one octave :p), ang ku kueh...just to name a few.  I never inherited her skills coz I helped 80% of the time by being her Executive Food Taster!  I tried to roll the love letters...they hardened while I was rolling halfway..it's freaking hot!

#6
Missed my paternal great-grandma and how she never fail to scold me every single time we had family gathering in Malaysia.  I thought she hated me but came to realise that this was the way she loved.  She cared that' s why she bothered to scold.  I had never seen her smile...maybe she doesn't know how.  In those days, girls in my family were not allowed to have long flowy hair not bun up.  I look horrible with bun up hair!  The best my mum could do was to plait my hair.  Please both side..me and my great granny.  At times I would wonder what it would be like if I accidentally pulled her sarong kebaya and it falls :p REVENGE!!!!  Greeting the whole world before we can start dinner was also a nightmare...the family was big...I mean HUGE coz great grandpa had 2 wives!!!  I remember I used to play in the rubber and banana plantation behind the house.  I was never allowed to go there alone but the more they say no, the more I wanted to do it just to prove them wrong.  Come to think of it, I was real stupid.  Good thing nothing happened to me!

#7
Missed the malay uncle on bicycle who would cycle around Bukit Timah area to sell Mee Rebus.  He would have this huge wooden box behind his bike.  He would stop his bike when we call out to him and we'll run out with our plates to buy his Mee rebus.  Inside the box, there's a stove and all the ingredients necessary for the mee rebus.  After that, the ice cream uncle would come too :o)

#8
Missed my secondary school days where I would take a bus to the Jurong East Library to borrow books and never remembered to return.  I remembered there was a time I was alone in the bus stop with a guy in his late 50s.  He took out his groin and looked at me...probably expecting me to scream and run.  I stood fixed in the same position and looked at him expressionless.  Then there was another time when I was sitting on the upper deck of the bus.  A guy came up and almost immediately fell asleep leaning closer and closer to me.  I reached for my scissors and realised I forgot to bring.  So creative me took out a mechanical pencil and poke him instead.  Just before alighting, I remembered to give him a hard step on his left foot!  Never bothered to turn back and apologise coz I wasn't in the wrong.  Being in the student council has its perks too.  We get to inspect toilets when the students were in class.  Nothing much in the female toilets.  But things found in the male toilet ranges from walkman, t-shirts, condoms, exam papers, text books to sanitary napkins!  GOSH!  I preferred valentine's day to exams because i get to receive pressies and flowers.

#9
I missed art classes mum sent me to.  I would draw a panda and everyone else would think it's a dog.  My artistic aptitude was amplified when I started drawing on the walls in my bedroom.  Mum thought that sending me for art classes would diminish my desires to draw on walls. It did not!  I still drew but I drew nicer pictures.  So mum started drawing too.  She drew a box on the wall and made me to draw within the box only!  I get whacked if I drew out of the box.  So my stickmen were basically overlapping each other.

#10
I missed my kindergarten days.  I remembered we were queuing in the toilet and I was in the front.  One girl came and told me that she really needed the loo urgently and asked if I could let her go first.  I glared at her and said NO.  Shortly after, she peed right where she was queuing.  Poor thing....Well, I believe in fairness.  You want to use the loo, queue like everyone of us.