Shih Chung Branch School: Aerial View: After & Before

This is quite accurate. Gotta love Google Maps. More on some of the features later.

Shih Chung Branch School: “Five cents as big as a cow-drawn cart’s wheel.”

This is the Hokkien saying which means very little money means a lot to some people (Gasp! Two "means" in one sentence! How mean is that? Who cares? I'm not a copywriter). And when I was a kid, it was as big as the Singapore Flyer. Actually not five cents but five ringgit instead.

A Vitagen truck used to come to our school about twice a year to sell those cultured drink at discounted price. My mum would always give me five ringgit for the treat. I can't remember how many you can get with five ringgit in those days, 200 bottles? Anyways one day it was announced to us that the Vitagen truck would be coming tomorrow so happily I asked five ringgit from my mum the next morning and off to school I went.

I normally only have 50 cents a day for snacks (canteen food was subsidised and free) so I'd kept the coins in my left shorts pocket and the five ringgit note in my right. When I got to school, five ringgit, checked. After the first lesson, five ringgit, checked. Another two more lessons gone by, five ringgit, checked. Right before recess, five ringgit, GONE!

I searched high and low, inside my pockets and out, top and bottom of desk, chair, school bag, corridors. If there was a ladder I'd have searched the ceiling. I ran home during recess to tell my mum hoping I'd get another five ringgit for my much anticipated elixir of life but I guess you know her answer: NO. "Do you know how much is five ringgit?? It's as big as the Singapore Flyer AND London Eye combined!!" (OK those were not her exact words but she meant the same thing...)

NO VITAGEN ON THAT FATEFUL DAY.

[Ethnic Joke Alert]
"What's the difference between an Australian and a Vitagen?"
"Vitagen has culture."

Shih Chung Branch School: Softball Played Hard

Our favourite sport was softball instead of the wildly popular soccer in other schools. I think mainly because it's less exhausting, less violent and both boys and girls can play in the same team and everyone got three chances at hitting the ball and participating in the game.

We used hula hoops as our bases and our balls and bats were made of plastic. Softball was never a competitive sport for us because it was not listed as an official sport in any inter-school championship. We'd really look forward to each PE lesson because it's pure fun when you take the competitive element out of it. We also had soccer (mainly for boys) and badminton but those were more of extra-curricular activities.


Lee Kok Hoe was the first to use the fancy overhand throw (for baseball) but I was too shy to mimic his moves so I stuck to the underhand pitch.

We'd also tried dodge ball but it never caught on. What a bunch of fun and peace loving kids we were.

Source: throwmax.com

Shih Chung Branch School: Class of ’88

This is a rather lousy reproduction taken using my cellphone. I'll replace it as soon as I find a good scanner.

This was actually the whole school, minus the guy with his back facing the camera on the left. Our class was made up of 32 students, roughly 35% of the entire school's population of 93, including teachers and the caretaker.

Top row, left to right:
1. 林(坤)良 注：坤，取其音。实字为上双方下土。
2. 杨文光
3. 王其洲 Ong Kee Chew
4. 张臣荣 Ah Eng
5. Totally slipped my mind
6. 林廷义
7. 郑伯贤
8. 骆永杰 Loh Eng Keat
9. 李国豪 Lee Kok Hoe

Second row, left to right:
10. 莫锦荣
11. 吴伟国
00. I'm pretty sure
00. they were our juniors
00. positioned there for
00. arrangement aesthetics
12. 赵烈康 Chew Lick Horn
13. 杨胜越
14. 赖耀达 Lai Yeow Tatt
00. junior
00. junior
15. 陈子庆 Ching Chee Heng
16. 郑伟强 to confirm

Bottom row, left to right:
17. 周天福 to confirm
18. 陈宝山 to confirm
19. 林李真 Lim Lee Chin
20. 李雪清
21. 陈惠玲
22. 陈秀容
23. 伍慧敏
24. 王小燕 to confirm
25. 黄丽妃 Ooi Lay Hooi
26. 刘盈廷 Liu Ying Ting
27. 吕加美 Loo Kar Bee
28. 曾丽萍 Chan Lay Peng
29. 郑熙凤 Teh Hee Hong

Absent:
30. 何国豪
31. 罗(倚)美 注：倚，取其音。部首为丝。
32. 郭士妃

The only teachers who taught us from Primary One through Primary Six are Mr Wong (first male teacher on the left) and Mr Boey (third male teacher from left). In between them is Mr Yao, the disciplinary head and the scout master. The headmaster is the teacher who wore a tie.

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.

Things: Make Your Own Dental Floss

Mum is a frugal woman. She comes from a family where she often had to scrap the bottom of the rice cooker to get the scorched layer of rice, dipped with soy sauce, as her dinner. When she was younger (1960s) she saved enough five cents (MYR) to buy a gold bracelet worth RM50.

Once she saw me using dental floss (1995) and she was curious what it does. I told her it's for removing those food bits that toothbrush missed. I gave her my dental floss dispenser and asked her to try it out. When I returned to Penang during my next semester break I saw this thin nylon string hawkers used to tie takeaway food packets hanging on a hook next to her toothbrush.

Apparently she's finished using the dental floss I gave her and found it rather expensive to buy.

Note: I have since stopped her from being so environmental-conscious.

Things: “You know your soap very expensive? My soap is only 40 cents and yours costs one dollar!”

That's what my mum told me circa 1985. The currency was Malaysian Ringgit. Ever since I can remember, I've never used any other soap except Johnson & Johnson's Baby Soap. Her 40 cents soap was Lux. Not that I didn't want to be beautiful with Lux, but I'm simply very prone to allergic reaction, especially towards body cleanser. I've used those baby soaps all the way till I was about 16, then I started using shower gel – yes, J&J's. When they launched the pH5.5 range, I switched to that and have stuck to that since. A few years back they came up with a jelly green version and a jelly purple version (only in Malaysia), which I really liked but they've since discontinued them. They also have them with Honey and with Almond, but these two are awfully sweet smelling. The best one that does the job is the most basic 5.5.

“Lux with smooth lather... completely refreshes my skin.”