Friday, April 2, 2010

Shih Chung Branch School: Excuses Excuses...

Around September 2008 me and a few friends started planning for Hairloom & Caramel, a hair saloon and café all rolled into one. It's been a fun ride working full time at the café for the first nine months of 2009. And now we are struggling to keep it afloat.

So back to circa 1986 when I was in Primary Four I was fooling around with Lee Kok Hoe (my then arch rival, but more about him later) during recess with these 12-inch metal rulers as our swords. No I didn't kill him or anything but this poor guy, Lim Lee Chin, got in the way of our epic sword fight. We tried to move away from him but he kept wanting to be part of the action. Annoyed, I hit him with the metal ruler flat on his face. He got a shock and finally backed away.

Shortly after recess I got called to the teachers' office. Standing next to the disciplinary head was Lee Chin, bruised and blood-red skin outlining a long rectangular shape on his right side burn area. I made a lame excuse of saying he ran into our sword practice but of course the disciplinary teacher see right through it. I don't remember what punishment was handed down to me because I was more fearful of Lee Chin's words: "I'm going to tell my dad you did this to me!"

The next day a classmate's mum actually asked me to hide behind the classroom when Lee Chin's dad sent him to school. You can run but you can't hide. During recess, thinking everything was over, I was playing with some classmates when Lee Chin's dad rode up to me in his bike and asked to challenge his son. I was shocked and scared speechless so he rode away.

Later my classmate's mum (the same one who asked me to hide) said Lee Chin's dad had actually given Lee Chin a pen knife before he went looking for me. I didn't know how much of this was true but I was glad I didn't fight with Lee Chin afterwards.

Some 20 years later one of the classmates saw Lee Chin on the street as a very buff bodybuilder.

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