STPM

The exam starts today. I sat for its predecessor, the HSC, when it was in English.

I didn't feel I had prepared well for it & I remember I had a particularly torrid time with the Biology papers. The results certainly reflected that sentiment.

How I ended up doing Medicine is a rags to riches story.

Just take my word for it - zero to hero.

:)

SPM

The exam starts tomorrow. It used to be called MCE when the language of instruction was still in English. It's a faint memory for me but I remember the 1st and last papers well.

Traditionally, BM is the 1st paper. I remember writing 3-4 pages of karangan. The answer sheet has a hole punched in the upper left corner & a string is used to tie the sheets together. On each, the student was supposed to write the index number & IC number. However I wrote them only on the 1st sheet but forgot to write it on the subsequent ones. If the sheets got separated, unlikely if fastened securely, then only the 1st sheet can be traced to me. Imagine the anxiety I went through for the rest of the exam lasting 3 weeks and another 3 months waiting for the results. 

The last paper was Add Maths & it fell on the day AFTER my birthday. Unfortunately, my best bud came a-calling on my birthday, thinking Add Maths was a walk in the park for me, so we ended up chatting & going out for dinner. Didn't get home till about 9pm, which gave me just a couple of hours to revise. 

I scraped thru with a P7 for BM, still enough to get into 6th Form and got a C3 for Add Maths, which dismissed the notion about the stroll in the park.

All the best, SPM candidates, esp to those in flood-hit Penang.

Specs #2

I didn't stay long in the last class. After a couple of good monthly test results, I got promoted to J class, was made class monitor by midyear, & went on to stay in EC till 6th Form.

I met 2 best buds there - TS in Form 3, a fellow chess & football enthusiast whose sister I had the hots for, and TzC in 6th Form, a fellow delinquent & partner in crime.

I then had 4 other crushes in quick succession, one in Lower Six & THREE in Upper Six. How I got into Medicine despite the bruises is another tale for another day.

I had 4 soon-to-be eminent schoolmates - 2 captains of industry (Liew at Setia/EcoWorld and Jamal at Maxis/Axiata), a chief minister (Khaled) and royalty (HM the Sultan).

Believe me when someone tells you that school days are the best times in one's life.

Specs

That was the name the BM teacher called me in Form One. She didn't know my name then & I was the only one in class with glasses.

There were 10 classes of Form One that year, Form I A to F, then J to M. I was in Form 1M, the last class.

That was an anomaly that year. The premier secondary school for boys was EC. Every smart kid wants to get in but admission is by location; you get in if you live in the area. I lived far from that & ended up in the not-so-glamorous neighbourhood school, SAB. As we were gathering to register on the 1st day of school at SAB, after much delay & confusion, we were told to report at EC the next day.

Because we were not the original EC batch, we were temporarily allocated to J-M classes and because they couldn't trace my Secondary School entrance test results, I was arbitrarily banished to the bunch-of-losers last class.

Yes, that's me, Specs, starting secondary school right at the bottom of the pit. But there's one consolation, though - from thereon, there's only only one way to go.

Up.

26-year memory lane

I met up with an ex-colleague over the weekend after a lapse of 26 ( yes, TWENTY SIX !!) years. And we both concurred that we didn't change much physically, as we immediately recognised each other.

Initially, we feared we had lost much that we had in common before, besides being in the same discipline, but when we took that walk down that decade-old memory lane, the flood gates just opened.

Having pre-dinner drinks at his clubhouse, he ordered 2 glasses of Guinness draught, only to realise that I don't take stout. So, to accommodate me, he ordered a beer. When I asked him about the other glass of stout, he coolly said he'll polish that off as well.

Spoken like a true ex-pubcrawler. Four of us did one crawl back in 1990 during the World Cup Finals. Besides our interest in watching the game, one other thing we shared after that crawl was the drain we all peed into when we didn't feel bothered to look for a washroom.

And yes, we all became (respected??) medical specialists several years after that.

Woo hoo !!

A tale of 3 siblings.

T was my Best Bud in secondary school. We clicked because of our interest in chess and football. I then came to know his family very well.

T is the eldest of 3 siblings. We played chess in school & at our homes, talked and played football at other times. He supported Spurs while his younger brother J supported Liverpool, so we really had a good banter every time we met.

T is in banking in Canada, and I keep saying I will visit but haven't yet did, while J runs an entertainment outlet in our hometown in JB.

M is the little sister, now in Sydney, whom I had the hots for (and their parents didn't mind....woo hoo!!) and sure, many times I have wondered what could have been but that's a story for another post.

:P

An Act of Random Kindness

My Primary One class teacher, Pn RB, passed away last year. I've only  fond memories of her. You see, I was the proverbial teacher's pet & it helped that my parents were friends with her.

One particular incident endeared her to me in a life-long way. I was 1st in class in the mid-term tests but came in 3rd for the year-end exams. I bawled like a spoilt brat because of the high expectation and failure to maintain top position. However, later in the day, I was told that I was actually 1st because of a calculation error.

I knew that was not the case only years later. I was 7 and naive. I recalled the ink correction to the test marks & came to realise what Pn RB did for me, to make me look good. An undeserved act of random kindness.

I  did feel sorry for my classmates, FM & WW, both of whom remained my FB friends but don't read this blog. One of them should have been 1st & the other, 2nd.

I continued to study hard & work diligently & I write this for closure.

Thank you and rest in peace, Pn RB.

6th Form

English College, 1977

I love this class USSB. Upper Six Science B.

Marvelous Chemistry, Biology, and General Paper teachers, and special mention to the late Mr GV Pillai, Physics teacher. I did apply to be an engineer, you know, but I digress.

And my beloved classmates who were comrade-in-arms in work & play.

I'd like to think you've all impacted my life as much as I have yours. 

We should have organised our 20th year anniversary this year. 

I should have.

Return to Innocence

Jason Bay, 1978.

It was the 1st church camp I ever attended.

Living off well water & kerosene lamps.

Fresh (sea) air & sunshine.

Played football by the beach &

Watched sunset at dusk.

The mosquitoes were relentless but the snakes stayed away.

The camaraderie was strong & the fellowship warm.

I was a new believer.

Love was in the air but I made a mess of it.

Ha ha, that's why I will never forget this.

