Recollections: Cheeky GirlGirl

Meimei shared this classic photo again today. It always tickles me when I see it.

My Sticker Album

I used to collect stickers in my primary school days. Some of them came as secret gifts in edibles like Mamee noodles snack or purchased as a collectible. Because I didn't have an actual collectible card book or a sticker album, I took out the sticker backing and stuck them on a clear folder sheet just so I can display them on a page. 

Naturally that 'destroys' the sticker and they were no longer valuable. But well ... I was like 10 years old and didn't know any better. I would take out the album of and on to admire the stickers. Things were so much simpler in our day.

Fast forward 30 years ... it has come the time to let it go. I took a picture of every page and inserted some onto this blog page for remembrance. I doubt the children will appreciate this aspect of my youth. OO has an abundance of stickers we buy from various places and probably will not understand how we had to beg for stickers and the patience we had to have to collect one sticker a week in a pack of Mamee.

Recollections: High Tide

I had just started primary school. My mum, in all her 'wisdom', taught me a couple of phrases in hopes they would help me if I have any pressing need. One of her advice was to tell the teacher that I had 'high tide' if I needed to go to the toilet.

I can no longer remember the face of the teacher but I recall she was Malay. It was between classes and I went up to her and told her I had 'high tide', hoping she would grant me leave to rush to the toilet. I was already full and needed to go immediately. But she couldn't understand and ask me in a nasty condescending tone "What high tide? What do you want?" "High tide teacher ... *struggling to keep the pee in" "What high tide??! Can you say properly?!"

I must have made an agonising expression as she soon understood I needed to go to the toilet and wave me off. I ran as fast as I could to pee. It was one of the embarrassing moments in my early childhood which I could never shake off. I vaguely recalled that I was angry at mum for teaching me silly phrases. But on hindsight, she was doing the best she could with the limited education she had.

I did promised years later to never fall fault of this with my own children. I'll teach them the proper way of expressing themselves so others can understand them. It's important to save them such unnecessary embarrassment ... which one can still remember 30 odd years later.

Recollections: Afternoon Snack At Hillview

There is very little I remember of my youth. It is one of the biggest regret of my life ... to not have kept a diary of sorts. My mama always tried to encourage us to write but we never took to it. So I treasure very much the little bits of memories I still keep. Most of it are just tiny 1-3 seconds flashes of memories.

One vivid scene from my early days was of this scene where I was watching Mickey Mouse on TV while munching on fries with ketchup. Mama had placed the plates on the coffee table so bro and I just stood there gobbling down the snack with our eyes were glued to the TV. Mama was never good at frying stuff though, she think frying is oily. So she tries to 'control' the oil by not having the fries fry for too long in the wok. Atlas ... this actually made it worse. The final product is this semi-fried version, more like baked fries, which was coated in thick cooking oil. Very greasy, very unhealthy ... the perfect food for a 4-5 year old. 

I think I recall this scene as I felt an immense sense of satisfaction having a snack with TV. You always remember the happiest, saddest or most embarrassing things.

Remembering FFXI

Just recently I went to check out the website for FFXI after Mum forced me to clear out all my remaining stuff at Hillview and I found my original box sets of the game and its expansions. Meimei ask me to keep them but I declined. I know there is no going back, I'm a dad now. 

Over the years I've occasionally reminsce about the fun I had playing the game. The thoughts usually came to me while I was playing on my iphone. Sigh ... No mobile MMO game will ever reach the depth and co-op play an online PC game can deliver.

It seems the game is still thriving with 3 expansions after I left. Sure the player base has dwindled and couple of servers were merged, but the developers were still holding events and contests to drive interest.

I'll be lying if I say I wasn't tempt to start playing again. But the time commitment the game takes (4 hours each time you team up to level up a character) always puts a damper on any hopes of picking it up again. 

And now that I've thrown away the boxes, it is the definite conclusion. The boxes holds the unique user ID key and losing them meant I can never get my character back ever again. 

Its for the best. I can always dive into another MMO when I retire ... In another 30 years or so. Highly doubt FFXI will still be running then ... So oh well. I'll just continue to dream about the days when I run free in Vana'diel in search of fame and adventure!

My Wallaby Experience

Going back for reservist and hearing that next is Wallaby has brought back memories of my trip to the Australian outback 9 years ago. I was there 3 weeks and although I don't remember a lot of it, somethings are still vivid in my mind just because it was a horribly tough trip. It's always the toughest assignments that you remember best.

The Outfield Camp that was our Base Camp

There was a major Apache exercise the same time we were here for Wallaby. All the bunks in the Camps were taken up by the regulars. So they threw us to an outfield camp and we didn't see concrete walls for the whole 3 weeks we were there. There was no difference between being back at camp or going out on missions ... we were out in the wilderness. It was the most horrible condition they could leave us in ... 

The Slitting Blade 

I was shaving. And when I was done, somehow common sense left me for a moment. I ran my fingers against the shaving blade to clean off the tiny hairs. And the next thing I felt was utter pain and a steady stream of blood flowing down onto the sandy ground.

The image and pain still haunts me. I can feel it cut through my very veins whenever I think about it. To do this in such a harsh environment adds on to the anguish and despair I felt as I rushed to find bandage for my self-inflicted wounds.

Tearing Down a Triple Con in the Dead of Night

There was only eight of us in the RP section. One fella managed to get himself excused from going out on missions. Of the seven that went out, one decided that his life was far more important than anyone else and basically snaked through everything.

One of the key images I had was the team trying to tear down the triple con we had setup a couple of hours ago at 1am. The commanders decided on a dawn raid so we were packing up at 5am. Till this day, I'm still very proud that we managed to put up and tear down a full perimeter triple con with such efficiency and only six man. The snake sat it out because he thought it was too dangerous to be handling wires while maintaining light discipline.

The Doggy Poo

They added something to the combat rations that made our poop look like that of animals. Think of solid dog poo and you get the picture. The idea behind the doggy poo is that it was suppose to mask your presence. The enemy would mistaken a soldier's poo for an animal's.

I think the concept is good but sadly the execution missed a far more important practical aspect. No matter how much our poo is made to look like animal's, there is a one single dead giveaway that makes the whole scheme fail miserably.

They forget that unlike animals, we humans will use toilet paper to clean our butt after we have done our business. So the very sight of toilet paper will tell the enemy that 'hey though this poo looks like a dog's, it's actually from a person!"... 

Recollections

I recall random stuff from the past. It's usually spurred by current events and happenings. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I could remember. If you ask me now what I had for lunch yesterday I couldn't tell you ... but somehow i could remember a lunch I had from 15 years ago. Odd ... but i guess thats how the brain works. And when I say remember its not like I can call out the memory at any moment. It comes and goes.

So I'm gonna start a new tag to blog about random events I recall for future remembrance ... I might just forget them forever if I don't list it down hahah. And for the first one ... this is triggered by a recent news event where a 16 year old teenager made insensitive remarks about Christianity and was brought to task by the Courts.

This triggered a rather odd recollection of a scene from a lunch with colleagues from donkey years ago when I was working at Suntec City. I have this colleague who is a Christian pastor ... maybe not senior one but he does give sermons ... who ummm I would say is in his own world. We were queuing at an Indian stall selling Bryani and Nan curry. When it came to his turn, he looked at the Indians across the counter and ask for beef ... I was shocked at his request and immediately pulled his arm and told him this is an Indian stall! I think I remember this because of his subsequent reaction ... which was a look of blank bewilderment.

How does this link back to the news event? Well ... there are idiots on both sides of the fence. Even the most senior and educated folks can be douchebags living in their own hole. So I remembered this scene to this day ... because it shocked me that a pastor can be so insensitive. And this is no 16 year old but a father of 30 odd age. Oh well ... hhhahahha.