Reminiscing - Part 1

Mak Andeh wrote that she taught her kids English with Peter & Jane books. For a split second, my childhood memories came flooding back. I literally grew up reading P&J, before primary school that is. I remember staying at nenek's house in Penang for a month because I didn't want to return home after raya. Coincidentally, my aunty (Tinani) had the chicken pox and it took her a month to fully recover. Since I had so much time in my hands (duh.. 4 yrs old, no other kids around, apa laa yg aku boleh buat.. playing alone bored the hell out of me), Tinani decided to teach my how to read. So she bought P&J books yg senang2. Contoh ayat.. "I am Peter", "I am Jane", "This is a ball", "Peter likes to play with the ball". She will read the sentences to me, I'll follow and later practice by myself. When I think I'm good enough, I'll read the whole book to her. If I fared well, Tinani will draw stars for me, on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. So imaginelah, I was sooo happy whenever I got 5 stars.. It was the greatest achievement ever for a 4 year old kid.. haiyaahh how simple life was back then. As I got better, Tinani will buy more P&J books with more difficult words and longer sentences. By the time aku masuk primary school, reading in BM and English was a breeze..

Making friends was easy too. I attended a Methodist school, so most of my friends were Chinese, and I could count my Malay friends with one hand. My best friends were always Chinese (I say 'always' sbb every year tukar best friend heheh). Therefore, learning English was made easier since I spoke only English at school.. Once, masa Std 4 or 5, I got an 89/100 for my English midterm exam, and my English teacher wanted to see me after class to discuss my 'low' grade. hahahaha.. dammit.. For the first time in my life I got a B for my english test. Bummer. I didn't really think much of it because I know it was due to careless mistakes, tapi cikgu aku yg lebih2 pulak. cehh... go worry about other kids lah Ms. Shanti! Since I was surrounded by Chinese friends during my whole primary school years, I experienced a slight culture shock when aku masuk TKC. 100% melayu semua beb. cakap pun dalam BM, using 'aku' and 'kau' instead of 'i' and 'you'. wahhh to me that was soooo vulgar.. took me sometime to get used to it.

One particular thing that still amazes me is that, I did not catch Tinani's chicken pox, eventhough we spent a whole month together, in the same house, slept in the same room, ate together, sat side by side everyday during our 'study' sessions.. My brother and sister were down with chicken pox masa sekolah rendah, and I wasn't infected then either. Everyone should have had chicken pox at least once in their lifetime, right? My time has yet to come. No I'm not wishing that aku dapat pox, but if I were to fall ill with the disease, better sooner rather than later.. and kat Malaysia! hehehe.. so that I'll have my mom to fuss over me. One thing's for sure, the older you become, the pox will stay with you longer, when you catch it. That explains why Tinani didn't recover until after one month! She was on leave from work the whole time, must've been heaven on earth for her.

I met my friend from sekolah rendah during my trip to UK baru2 ini, after 10 yrs. One of the few Malay friends I had before high school. Rasa nervous tu mmg inevitable lah since I didn't know what to expect. But satu menda that I couldn't help thinking, camana nak converse bila jumpa ni? Cakap english slang cina (macam kat skolah rendah dulu), or cakap macam aku cakap sekarang lah. melayu habis. hahaha.. it sounds like a stupid thing to worry about, nevertheless aku worry jugak lantak lah. So finally when we met, he spoke the way he did macam masa sekolah dulu. So baguslah... dia sudah decide utk aku. Tapi later when I met his other friends, dia cakap melayu macam biasa, tapi cakap ngan aku.. back to english caukia. hahahahah.. i thought it was hilarious, but weird at the same time. it was fun hanging out for 2 days, regardless.