Saturday, November 29, 2008
I found out yesterday how easily available picture books on Christmas are from the library. Browsing at a shelf could get me 1 or 2 books just like that. Phew... finally settled that for the low- budget Xmas Party for the kids. Hope they will enjoy it though since there were those in certain committees who put in a lot of effort in thinking up activities. Come to think of it, I've never been to a Christmas party when I was little. I remember that my bro's friend once had an extra ticket and the mum generously asked my bro to go. Instead his friend's younger bro didn't get to go! Wahaha.... I was so so envious then coz he could play games at the community centre and brought back goodies with him too. I had to try to persuade him to give me some, which he did, although unwillingly :D
I still feel that I was overprotected when I was a child. However, would I have done as well then if I wasn't so sheltered? During the previous primary school gathering, a friend remarked that I was so guai1 and would never hang out after school to play at the playground. That got me thinking and I guess she was right. Just surprised that she remembered. She lived at the block opposite mine and from what I could recall, she didn't hang around either *puzzled* She was one of the top in PSLE by the way.
However, I could remember vividly that I did a naughty thing once. An enrichment programme on Phonics was cancelled and instead of going home, I went with my friends to a playground behind the school. We played blind mice. Haha... I felt so guilty after that for hiding it from my parents who never found out about it too.
Primary school days were kind of fun and it was sort of an easy part of my education life. I took things for granted because I didn't have any real difficulties in my school work, just that I started to dislike Chinese as I moved on to upper primary and had to have tuition in Primary 6. The tutor being the eldest brother of one of my bro's friends. Found him quite cocky. He sounded apppalled when he found out I didn't know how to use the strokes of Chinese characters to search the dictionary (school didn't teach us either!). I felt so small then and kind of ashamed of myself. Come to think of it, I didn't have to feel that way right? Since my mum's msian (she can speak but cannot write Chinese words) and my dad is English educated. Didn't feel that he really helped me much. In fact, he would ask me to do assessment books while he was here and whenever he had to go to the toilet, I would sneak a peek at the answers at the back of the book and wrote them on my thigh or memorise the MCQ answers. I was smart enough not to quickly copy down all the answers rightaway or he would have found it strange why I could do everything so quickly! Wahahaha!!! Cunning right?
If I could copy answers when doing assessment books and still get an "A" for my PSLE, doesn't it prove that it wasn't him or the tuition that actually helped me? Buwahaha... Even for my "O" levels, my Maths tutor advised me not to retake after getting a B3. He pointed out that having merit for oral might be the reason for getting B3 and oral couldn't be taken again too. My determination made me decide to go for it again. This time sure that I could memorise all the Chinese words and their meanings better. I got A2 in the end and he had to swallow his words.
This personal Maths tutor is someone I will never forget. He never failed to encourage me and his words always made so much sense. Unfortunately, I have lost his contact number. It would be good to be able to meet up.
Serendipity believed today at 12:47 PM
