Honda came into the picture. totally outta the blue that a black fuzz would break into boon lay as i was getting home one night.. we initially wanted to just get SPCA to pick him up the next day, but his mannerisms reminded me soooo much of Osiris (the whole sitting on my chest and purring thingy) that night.. that i just had to adopt him. gave him his name cuz he sounded like a lil' motorbike as he purred his heart out.
i got married. like the whole gate-crash and wedding dinner thingy.
found another cat. this time from a longkang near boon lay. heart a mew-ing as we were on the bike.. couldn't bring ourselves to ignore it, and we did a u-turn to go find the source of that sound. turns out it was this lil' thingy that was stuck in the drain. alex reached down to save her and she stole our heart away. i went to get a terrapin holder from blsc, and in she went as i carried it back on the bike to havelock. she turned out to be a greedy lil' furball, but we kept her and called her Suzuki.. or rather Kiki. she's now like 10x the size of this pix. lol.
maybe i should do a separate post about the cats. haha.
got pregnant and then lost him. found out that the pregancy wasn't going well on april's fool.. oh, the irony. went back a week later and found that i lost the baby. that was hard. have never felt so emotional.. so.. numb. went for a D&C the next day.. and did the whole confinement thingy.. it took me a while to get over. but i'm fine now. got a tatt (like finally) to remember this baby by. just a small star outline behind my ear. sometimes i even forget that i have that tattoo.. just like i would forget i lost a baby.... it wasn't a normal pregnancy (molar pregnancy).. but whatever it is, the gynea gave the all clear to try again. so yea.. we will. =)
anyway, main reason why i'm here again.. was a conversation we had with pa. things have been drama-mama at home. the whole.. he's not talking to so-and-so, she's not talking to this-and-that. sighs. alex and i are trying to keep things cordial with all parties.. so we're doing our best to be neutral amidst all the drama.
went up for dinner at boon lay as usual.. as with every Sunday. we do try to chat with pa when we go up.. today.. we talked about his life. to be honest.. i'd rather talk to him about history.. about times that have past.. than to talk to him about life presently. sometimes.. feel that his opinions are so different from mine, that things inadvertently lead to squabbles. and i try to avoid that. so yes. his life.
schooling years - pre-primary
he went to a kindergarten near haw par. unforch i've forgotten (yea yea. already.) the name of it. but it was in the vacinity. he was sharing about how by then he already knew the differences between himself and the "rich kids".. who would have chauffeurs sending them to school.. ma jies who would wait for them in school.. and feed them apples and bananas during recess.
schooling years - primary
during P1 and P2.. he went to 2 different primary schools - one with a focus on english education (monfort?) and another with an emphasis on chinese (he forgot the name). after those years.. he went on to Jurong Primary.. the school was located near the existing PIE.. but the original building was burnt down subsequently. this was also the school that the sisters went to!
he did his PSLEs twice.. first time wasn't counted cuz of corruption.. which caused the papers to be leaked. but the second time he did the papers, he didn't score well enough to be admitted to a secondary school.
schooling years - secondary
having not been able to go into a normal secondary school. he first went to a madrasa - a malay religious school that is alone Victoria street (bugis area). being the only chinese boy, he got picked on.. but he fought back.. even against others who were bigger sized than him. all in all, he spent a few months there.. less than a year.
then Monk's Hill had an opening for him.. so there he went. but back then, the intake was too large that he had to attend a later session.. which meant lessons started at 3pm, and went on all the way till 8pm. he had problems taking a bus back, cuz his size meant that he didn't look like a typical teenager.. and no normal teenager would have lessons ending at 8pm!
schooling years - post-secondary
he got into St. Joseph's.. but after a few months, as there was a rich kid who wanted in.. and could donate the money, he was asked to leave. so yea. that totally cut short his post-secondary education.
working years
his first job was to be a clerk at MOE.. and his first pay was like $130+.. with a COLA (cost of living allowance) of $40. lol.. it was doing mainly research.. from there, it was to JVI and then ROV.
didn't really talk much about his working experience.. cuz we were more interested in his..
dating experience
mummy surprisingly wasn't his first girlfriend. his first was an indian girl that he went out with for a few months. and then it was a rich girl (the daughter of the mistress of a certain well known biscuit maker). all these were met through parties. him being a smoker.. got invited to pretty much a lot of these. what's the significance of being a smoker? well, apparently that made you sociable. that you'd make friends while smoking with other smokers. guess that's still true till today.
then, came mummy. he met her at a chalet / party.. she was the nanny of his colleague's kid.. and she had come along. apparently what attracted pa to her was her "big boobs" and "big bum". LOL. especially with the fact that she was wearing tight clothes.. a pink cap-sleeved t-shirt with pants, to be specific. lol! that would've been in '64/'65. and they dated all the way till '68 when they got married.. and that's only cuz ah gong put his foot down to say that pa couldn't possibly be dating forever.. i guess back then, 3-4 years of dating was really long.
it was fun. to learn about the parent's history like that. it's a weird feeling.. it's like.. all these years.. your parents have been well.. your parents. that's it. sometimes you'll forget that they were young too. that they had lives before you were born.. before even they were married. and it's nice. to know all these. i just thought it was important i noted these stories down. so that i wouldn't forget. that pa was a young man once...
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