Some interesting memories .. Most of the stories happened when I was very young. Please do not laugh at my 'Eng-land'.. :-)
1. The Dream
2. Free Movies
7. Close Encounter of the 'Shark' Kind
9. Mr. Shy
10. The Waiter
11. The Hungry Souls
13. Out Of The Blue
14. Fishing
16. The Fall
I once had a dream. In my dream, there was a girl who called to me. I found myself to be in the compound of Ngee Ann Polytechnic and there are many people around me who took me to be just a stranger, they walked pass me as if I was not there. This girl seemed to know me very well, she came to me and hugged me! I was surprised because I did not even know who she was!
Then she took my arms and led me in the library's direction. She pointed to the library and said excitedly, "Let's go and buy tickets, I want to watch a movie!" I turned my head and found that the library had transformed into a cinema!! I still do not know who this pretty lady was. I thought she looked familiar, and was trying hard to recall her identity but .... the alarm clock screamed...
I remembered my dream even as I woke up. It was very real. I took my showers, ate my breakfast, put on my casual wear, and walked down to the bus interchange to take the bus to the Polytechnic, still trying hard to guess who the girl in my dream was. Finally, as the bus reaches the destination, it dawned on me that the girl was actually from my lecture theatre! She was a very noisy girl because she always jokes around with her friends during the lessons. I was quite irritated with her. After that dream, I started noticing her. I stole some glances at her during class. I did not take a good look at her before but to my amazement, she look just like she was in the dream. Hmm.. does it mean that I have a photographic memory?
From then on, I began to like her! I always looked at her secretly during the lecture, it made my days a lot more happier as I have something to look forward to in my lessons! :-) However, I never approached her.... I was quite shy at that time and I had no excuses. It might be a let down for you readers, for the story did not have much of an ending, but my crushes for her last for more than one year. I finally put down my feelings for her during my second year.
My father used to bring me to cinema for movies when I was young. We always seat at the first row while other people would rather seat far away from the screen. The cinema was big during that time and the screen was far enough from the front row so your neck would not ache when you watch from the front.
I remember one day when I was in primary two, I could not find my father at home. My mother told me that he is watching a show in the cinema so I decided to find him there in the cinema.... :-) I walked a 20 minutes journey from my house to the Bedok bus interchange, and arrived at the cinema which my father always go to. I had no idea at all whether my father was in that cinema, and what show was he watching. I saw two tickets attendants, one man and one lady, at the entrance to a theatre waiting for more people going in. I approached the lady and asked her, "Auntie, can I find my father inside? My mother told me that he is watching a show."
Very funny now that i recall myself doing that, but the lady seemed to like me a lot. She let me into the cinema. It was too dark in there so I did not really looked for my father. Instead I sat on the stairs and watched the movie. The lady told me to pretend to be her nephew so that the manager would not stop me from watching the show. As a result, I did not manage to find my father but I stayed and watched three movies that day! Free of charge! The next day I went to the cinema again my 'auntie' took me in for another three shows. After that, I did not go back to find her again. I guess six free movies were enough for me. :-)
I cannot remember how old I was when my friend asked me to accompany him to his grandma's house. I could be in primary four then, I think. Anyway, I did not know where his grandma lived, I agreed immedately when I saw an opportunity for some adventures (I was a very playful kid). He led me from my home and we walked a long distance. It was like 'A Journey to the West', we walked away from my familiar grounds.
We walked pass some semi-detached houses and there was a small dog who barked at us from behind the fences. Being playful, we make funny faces at the dog and ran along the fences to provoke the dog. However, we were shocked when we reached the gate and found that it was opened! We ran like hell and only stopped when we were very far from the house, luckily the dog was very tamed, it did not come after us.
We walked farther and farther away, I don't even know where I was or how to go back. There was a big drain beside the road and we saw small ugly black crabs crawling in the drain. After the drain, we walked for what seemed like an hour before reaching the destination. Up till today, I still don't know where is that. When we reached his grandma's house, my friend gave me ten cents and told me to take bus number 8. He said it would take me directly to Bedok Interchange where I can walk home. The he walked away.
I waited for more than half an hour but there bus number 8 never came. I started to feel scared as I realised that I don't know my way home. It took me more than 2 hours to reach my friend's grandma's house, how could I have remembered how to walk back? I was going to cry out when I saw my friend again! He was waiting for bus from across the road! I quickly burst up the bridge and ran across to him. Luckily the bus has not come yet, I managed to reach him.
He was surprised to see me. Then he remembered that it was Sunday, bus number 8 don't operate on Sunday!!! I felt like strangling him but I would have no one to bring me home then. We took another bus and finally reached home in half an hour's time. When my mother saw me, she scolded me for disappearing the whole afternoon. I did not mind her scolding that day. It was a reassurance that I am truly home safely after a day's journey. My, what a day!
I once lived in Toa Payoh area. I could not remember the exact location because I was still in the kindergarten then. I remember that the flat that I lived in has a dark corridor where the neighbor's house faced each other. There were no lights along the corridor so it was real dark. Although I was just a kid, I had a certain kind of fear for the dark. I was worried that there may be some unseen things lurking in the dark, waiting for me.
You see, my father used to talk to me about ghosts. He told me that only adults can see ghosts while children cannot. They can only hear them. He has seen many ghost, especially in Toa Payoh area. He talked about the the white dress lady whom, in the middle of the nights, jumped off the building from the staircase just beside my corridor. It was so real that I had developed a huge fear for the unexplained which I have not yet encountered. I said 'not yet' because something happened not long after that..... something which strengthened my fear!
It was an afternoon, when my mother told me to bring some cockles to a neighbor. She was a forty years old lady who lived just two doors away. I took the bowl of cockles and walked to her house. As I approached her house, I saw that the door was opened. Suddenly I heard her crying out for help. I quickly ran to her door and looked inside. I thought there was a fire but everything looked normal inside her house. I saw her rushing to the door and leaned on it, she looked frightfully at something inside the house. Then I heard a shrill from inside the house. It sounded like a woman crying but it was more threatening than that, because my neighbor was grabbing her own neck as if someone was going to strangle her. The shrill moved nearer to the door but I could not see anything. I was so scared that I wanted to run away, but I cannot seem to moved at all. The 'ghost' was just in front of the lady now, and I could not do anything. It was the worst nightmare of my life!
Finally, I was able to move again and scrambled to my door. I knocked very hard on my door, screaming for my mother to open the door. Then there was a couple, a man and his wife, whom rushed up the staircase and hurried to the lady's house. It was as if they knew what had happened. My mother opened the door for me and I rushed in. When I told my mother what happened, she did not believe me. It took me quite some time before I regained my composure and I slowly walked back to the lady's house. Everything seemed to be in control as I saw the couple consoling the lady. The lady moved away after a few weeks.
This incident left a scar on me for many years. I was very afraid of the dark. When my class was in the morning session, I have to take the lift early in the morning and I would always think that someone would leap out of the lift as the lift door opens. Whenever I was alone in my house, I would jump into bed and cover my ears, hoping that my parents would come home soon. It was when I was in Secondary four that I slowly overcame my fear. I am now not afraid of going to work early in the morning and going home late. In fact, I rather enjoy staying up late and do my own things or IRC throughout the night... :-)
Of all the part-time jobs that I have ever did, waiter is my most favourite occupation. I have first worked in the McDonald during my Secondary school days. After 'O' Level, I worked in Denny's. Then I became a Banquet waiter. Being a banquet waiter really opened my eyes to the some of the workings of the hotel management. I enjoyed serving guests in the big beautiful ballroom, rushing to get the food in time for the guest, shaking my body to the beat of the disco music during Dinner and Dance functions, etc.. Life as a waiter is full of excitement and the unexpected.. anything can happen.
I remember once when I was real clumsy. It was a grand function with many VIPs. I was serving the food when I knocked against a glass filled with beer. It toppled over and the beer spilled onto a man's pants. I quickly apologised to him and cleaned up the mess. The man saw that I was really sorry so he was not angry. However I knocked the glass over again as I was withdrawing my hand from the dish that I served on the table. It spilled on the same man... I was so ashamed of myself and apologised again and again to him. I was quite surprised that he did not blow up after all. He just looked.... frustrated.
The third time I had to served at the table, I tried to be very careful. This time, as I served next to the man, he quickly held onto his glass of beer. Then he looked at me as if he was very afraid of me. I was so ashamed but at the same time I wanted to laugh.
Except for this clumsiness, I did quite well serving the other guests. There were no complains after the dinner so I was very lucky.
Close Encounter of the 'Sharks' Kind
I returned to the same hotel to work as banquet waiter during my poly school holidays. I seemed to forget a lot of things then, but it was fun to learn everything again.
The serving of the first course was very smooth and I became more comfortable with the work. The second course was an expensive one, Shark's fin. It was contained in a large chinaware with no lid and we have to carry it on our shoulder, as usual. We waited for quite some time before the shark's fin are all ready and steaming hot. As the waiters proceeded to serve their tables, I bent down to place the tray of shark's fin on my shoulder. I did not remember to stand up first before making my move. Instead I moved and stood up at the same time. As a result, the shark's fin went forward and spilled over the brim. Three quarter of the bowl of shark's fin poured onto my neck.
The shark's fin soup burnt my skin on the back of my neck and I was too shocked to do anything. The other waiter saw me and they did not know what to do. After a while of shock, I quickly put down the tray onto the table and rushed to wash my wounds. It was really painful. I went to the manager, and he applied some medication on my scalded neck. Despite the pain, I returned to my station and continued to serve the remaining of the shark's fin to the guest. I smelled of vinegar throughout the whole function.
The wound took me two weeks to heal, but the scalded marks disappeared only after 4 months. Whenever I see the shark's fin again, I have the fear of it spilling over me again. I will never forget that incident
It rang like the ghosts just broke loose from hell and pulled me out of my dream. I quickly jumped up from my bed and rushed to the phone. I picked up the handset to listen to it, but the phone continued to rang very noisily. I quickly put back the handset to stop the ringing but it did not stop. Then I tried punching at all the numbers, pulling out the telephone lines, Unplugging the power cord to the phone, all but to no valid, the phone continued to ring. I was really puzzled but could not do anything as I have done all I could to stop the phone, the phone was still screaming so loudly.
Then I started to recognise that the ringing was actually not from the phone, but it was from my alarm clock! I quickly pushed down the button to stop the ringing, turned on the lights, and looked at the time, 5 a.m in the mornng.... time to get up to work... It was then that I became sober and I laughed at myelf for being so blur. I did not recognised the ringing of the alarm clock when I hear it almost everyday. I tried to stopped the phone from ringing and almost spoiled it in the process! What a way to start my day!
I was a very shy guy. I mixed with the guys only and I played and joked a lot with them. I never talk much to girls until I was in Sec.4, when I started to like a girl in my class. Although she was my classmate since Sec 3, I only started to notice her after a year. She was a very cute girl had had a cute voice.
One day, I overheard some of the girls planning to stay back after school to decorate the notice board behind the class. I dragged my friend to stay behind with me. I never thought I would do such thing but I did it anyway. She was there of course, and we had some fun making decorating the classroom. It was then that I got to know the girls and we became good friends due to common interest. We all like to sing and often stayed back after school to sing the latest Chinese songs. We also go out together a lot and that was some fun days.
Like every love story that you find in many storybooks, the girl that you like a lot don’t like you, but the girl that you don’t feel anything for felt for you. She already had a boyfriend so I did not reveal my feelings for her. I think she knew… Hmm…..
Anyway, our friendship was quite short-lived (around 3 months). We went our own ways after ‘O’ Levels to different schools. From my autograph book, I discovered what many people thought of me. The girls all wrote about how they thought I was a very ‘dao’ guy until the last year. I even had a classmate for four years but she only got to know me in Sec 4.
Overall, I am still the quiet guy but I have overcame much of my shyness now. If you know me well enough, you will discover the bit of playfulness and craziness that my friends wrote about in my autograph book
I started as a McDonald crew during Secondary 3. I got the job through my friend’s recommendation. Not that I could not ask for the job myself, but I never thought of it. J Anyway, the first thing that I did was to man the McChicken counter. I was the one who fried the chicken patties and heat the buns and present them to be "McChicken". It was my favourite job in the kitchen. There are other things to do also. I was also working in the lobby where I had to wipe the tables, clear the trays and left-overs, mob the floor and clean the toilets. I did not like that a lot, I did it anyway. One of my favourite was also the ‘Runner’. I would fetch the food from the counter on the first floor, and climb the stairs up to the third floor for the patrons at the bowling alleys. It was fun as I loved to run up and down the stairs. You might think I was crazy, but I really loved it. However I did that for only one day, after that I was back to the lobby, clearing up people’s mess. My lunch was the McDonald meal. I could not finish them on my first day as I was still nervous then. But as I became used to it, I could even eat two meals at a go!
I never worked at the counter before, so I did not interact with the customers. Then during the holidays after the ‘O’ Levels, I applied to be a waiter at ‘The Dennys’. It was an even more interesting job. This time, I have to interact with the customers; take their orders and attend to their needs. I could not speak very well with the customers but I tried to. Sometimes I don’t think as fast as I speak. When the customer said "I’m sorry!" I replied "You are welcome" when actually I wanted to say "It’s alright!" J I encountered stress during that time because I could not cope with all the customers. I have to attend to about 13 tables at one time! There was once when I had serious gastricspain because I got too stressed up. Still it was fun. I had great colleagues who are friendly, fun loving people. During the graveyard shift, when there were few customers we would rest outside the restaurant and chat while my friends smoked. Strange, during that time it seems that all the girls are smokers while only some of the guys smoked.
During my school days in the Polytechnic, I worked as a banquet waiter in a five-stars hotel. This time, not only did I interact with the guests, I also interacted with their foods. J I served their food on their table, tried hard to distribute them equally to each guest, and clear the left-overs away. It was really an eye opener for me. I really had trouble serving an equal portion of sharks' fin to each of them! I saw the ‘khuan’(the way) that the VIP eat, the games they play, all the beautiful girls at the anniversary of certain girls school, the romantic dance after the dinner, and people fighting and throwing beer glasses after they got drunk, etc. I had to deal with stress during the dinner but I was rewarded by the dance that came later. It was just serving drinks to the guest and then standing at the side listening to the pop songs and ballads and watching the guests dance. Of course many funny things also happened to me, some of which were due to my own blunders.
I really miss those days when I was working as a waiter. It really transformed a very shy boy to become more friendly and opened. If you think I am quiet and shy now, imagine .... I was worse then.
My classmates and I went shopping one day at the NTUC Fair Price. I could not recall what we were going to buy. We had just finish our lesson at Ngee Ann Polytechnics and have not taken our dinner yet. I was starving.
There in the corner of the shopping mall stood a lady. She was giving out food samples to the shoppers. As we walked closer, I saw that she had a lot of cooked fish-balls in her tray. Though we were real hungry, we managed to compose ourselves and walk over to the lady. We made ourselves very visible by walking just in front of her. So she held out the tray and we helped ourselves to the fish balls. We took one fish-ball each and quickly finish it. I do not know whether it was due to my hunger, the fish-ball was simply marvellicious! One fish-ball was not enough, it only made me more hungry.
I could not get my mind off the fish-balls as we continue our shopping. Soon we were back to that section and this time the lady was not around. I walked to tray and saw some fish-balls left. So I quickly took one fish ball and ate it. As no one was looking, I took more fish-balls. Soon I ate all the fish-balls in the tray! My friends were all surprised that I did such an outrageous thing.
As we rushed away from the tray, we saw the lady returning. She looked surprised too when she discovered her empty tray. It was then that I started to feel a little bit guilty. We quickly purchased our stuffs and made our way. I was much less hungry after that little meal. J
I was asked to mark the attendance of the guests at my friend's wedding banquet one day. So I wore my best looking outfit and made my way to the "Da-Ichi" Hotel. I thought I knew the way, but when I reached Tanjong Pagar MRT station and looked at the map, I could not find Da-Ichi Hotel.
I was required to be there at 7pm. It was 6pm then, so I did not panick. Somehow I was sure that the hotel was nearby, so I began to explore the area at Tanjong Pagar. I scanned the tall buildings for "Da-Ichi Hotel" but could not find it. Finally, I saw a building called Harbour View Hotel. I recalled my friend talked about this hotel so I walked in and tried to look for the events board. My friend's wedding dinner was not mentioned in the board. "Uh-oh!", I thought.
Still I did not give up. I took the lift to 10th level where the restaurant is supposed to be. The restaurant looked to be preparing for a wedding banquet and there was a signboard which says "Chong and Tan Wedding Banquet". I knew my friend's surname is Chong but I did not know about his bride's surname. In order to be sure, I asked the waitress (I should be asking the manager instead!) about the actual name of the newly wed couple but she did not know. So I decided to wait till 7pm and see if my friend appear.
I took a stroll down at the lobby and waited until 7pm. When I returned to the restaurant, I was really glad to see my friend there. He looked handsome in his suit. Following him was a girl, Sito, who was supposed to be taking the attendance of the bride's friends and colleagues. I would be taking the attendance of his friends and colleagues. Then he passed me a tie and told me to put it on, and left to make other arrangments.
I looked at the tie and tried to recall how to tie it. But I have forgotten! How embarassing! I made an attempt to tie it and after some struggle, I had no choice but looked to Sito and asked her if she knew how to tie it. And she did not know too. "Haha!", I thought. "Why am I so stupid! I used to wear a tie every tuesday during my secondary school days. How can I forget how to tie it now?" Finally I saw the photographer and asked him to help me. He made the knot in a few seconds. I was so ashamed of myself when I saw how easy it was done.
When I finally settled down and started to take the attendance, I thought I felt more nervous than the bridegroom. It was quite an eventful day even before the banquet started.
I have been in a very bad mood these few days. It is something that would come to me suddenly even when I was in a cheerful state. Whenever it happens, I would be very quiet. I do not know how my face looks like, but I think it is pretty obvious, because no one would risk talking to me when I am in a bad mood.
Haven’t you experienced before, that when you are in a bad mood, all things start to go wrong for you, making you more frustrated? That is when I would start to swear in my most crude hokkien language.
When I am in a bad mood, I could not force myself to talk to anyone. Can you imagine how hard it is for me when my friend, not knowing my mood, talks to me and I can only reply to him by shaking or nodding my head? Sometimes I wonder if I am some kind of a psycho case that will go crazy anytime.
I remember when I was in the third year of my diploma course, I took a mid-year examination paper for a subject that I like very much. I spent a lot of time studying for that subject and aimed to score for that paper, so that I would have lesser stress studying for the final examination. When I looked at the questions, I was so confident of attaining very high marks for that paper. However, I committed a mistake and it caused me about 10 marks.
I realized my mistakes just when I come out of the exam hall and reviewed my answers with my friends. At first I was just a bit disappointed. But then it turned to depression. I went out with my classmates to have fun but I became very quiet suddenly. I ignored my friends and sat by myself, staring at the sea for about 2 hours. I could not respond when my friends tried to talk to me. It must have worried them a lot.
Now I feel so guilty of spoiling their day and made them worried. I wished I had being more positive that day, but I know that I am not really capable of controlling my mood. For those who have not seen me in my foul mood yet, pray that you will not ever.
:-)
Before I know it, I had my earphone line in my mouth, with the Fillet. What a blunder! I quickly tried to pull out my line but it was blocked by the Fillet. I had no choice but to spit out the whole thing. The Fillet dropped onto my palm, and the line was freed, soaked with the mayonnaise sauce. I was so embarrassed.
Calmly, I cleaned my earphone and kept it back into my bag. Then I popped back the half eaten Fillet into my mouth and carried on eating. I have no idea if anyone saw me. I did not dare look up. :-)
I was going out with my classmates after school one day and we decided to go to Bugis. We reached Bugis MRT at noon at made our ways to the exit. As we reach the top of theescalator, my friend, Lawrence, was approached by a girl selling some stuff. Being mischievous, I went past Lawrence and started making face at him and teasing him for being so 'unlucky'. Of course, that girl did not know because I was gesturing to him behind her back.
Little did I know, there was another girl who stood in my way. When I turned, I still had that clown face on, and I nearly bumped into her. She was laughing so hard while she held up some candle-holders. I realized that I was also the 'unlucky' one, She said, "Sir, would you like to buy a Candle-holder for $10? It’s for charity!" At the same time she was laughing. It was really funny that I started laughing.
She was a cute looking girl at about 16 years old. I was thinking of buying one Candle-holder from her, unfortunately I did not have any money with me at that time. I had to refuse her but I was laughing so hard I did not know whether she understood what I was saying. I quickly walked away with my classmates, who was also laughing away. It was a very interesting incident.
I fell asleep in the bus on my way home. My head was swaying was side to side as usual. I sat on the outside of the seat on the second level of the double-decker. I could not recall what I was dreaming about, but I remembered seeing myself falling. I quickly reach out my hands for something to hold on to. As I was waking up from the fall, I felt my hands on something soft. I opened my eyes, and to my shock, I saw my hands on a lady’s lap near the knees! I have reached out across the passageway to the innocent young lady. She look shocked too and did not know how to react. I quickly apologized.
Many people must have seen it happened. I was so embarrassed that I pressed the bell and alighted.
Come back later for more stories......
