Not shown here is the attic. The photo below shows the unknown room under the headmaster's office (based on the main building it's attached to and the hotel building on the right).
Photo by grafikwarna at photokaki.com
Sin Eng Boleh
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Shih Chung Branch School: As Best As I Can Remember
Not shown here is the attic. The photo below shows the unknown room under the headmaster's office (based on the main building it's attached to and the hotel building on the right).
Photo by grafikwarna at photokaki.com
Shih Chung Branch School: La La Li La Tampung
School finished around 1pm daily. We'd go home and have lunch, do some homework and most of the time we'd meet again at school around 3pm. We played a lot of games: from jumping rope (made of rubber bands), police & thieves, hide-and-seek to marble balls and rollerskating, when we were older.
The game I enjoyed the most was hide-and-seek (when not being the seeker). It's fun because the school was HUGE. But we made an agreement to hide only at ground level.
To determine who would be the seeker, we played "Flip of Hands". You start with palm facing down (only one hand is needed), then chant a 4-line Hokkien rhyme while swaying your hand and at the end of each line, decide whether you want your palm facing up or down.
"La la li la tampung, (opening chant, meaningless)
Ah pek beh ah pong, (an old man sells ah pong - a kind of dessert)
Ah pong teem lo hai, (ah pong falls into the sea)
Ah pek jiak kao sai!" (old man eats dog poo)
The majority with the same sides of hands will be excluded from going into the second round. This will go on until one person becomes the minority and he or she will be the seeker. If the minority consists of two person, a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors (we call it One-Two-Tali-Som) will be carried out.
This hide-and-seek is a variant called "Kick the Can". As the name implies, a can is placed at the home base. When the seeker finds someone, he has to bring him or her back to the home base. The person has to wait there until everyone is found. However if at one point the seeker wanders too far off the home base and someone decides to come out from hiding, he or she can kick the can as far away as possible and the seeker has to return to can to home base. When the seeker is doing so, those who's already been found can go into hiding again!
Now come to think of it, what if the person who kicked the can was actually the person who'd been found when the seeker was not looking? Anyways I can't remember being the seeker (I'm sure I've had my fair share) but it sure was a thrill to kick the can real hard and watch the seeker cursing and swearing while everyone went hiding once more.
The game I enjoyed the most was hide-and-seek (when not being the seeker). It's fun because the school was HUGE. But we made an agreement to hide only at ground level.
To determine who would be the seeker, we played "Flip of Hands". You start with palm facing down (only one hand is needed), then chant a 4-line Hokkien rhyme while swaying your hand and at the end of each line, decide whether you want your palm facing up or down.
"La la li la tampung, (opening chant, meaningless)
Ah pek beh ah pong, (an old man sells ah pong - a kind of dessert)
Ah pong teem lo hai, (ah pong falls into the sea)
Ah pek jiak kao sai!" (old man eats dog poo)
The majority with the same sides of hands will be excluded from going into the second round. This will go on until one person becomes the minority and he or she will be the seeker. If the minority consists of two person, a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors (we call it One-Two-Tali-Som) will be carried out.
This hide-and-seek is a variant called "Kick the Can". As the name implies, a can is placed at the home base. When the seeker finds someone, he has to bring him or her back to the home base. The person has to wait there until everyone is found. However if at one point the seeker wanders too far off the home base and someone decides to come out from hiding, he or she can kick the can as far away as possible and the seeker has to return to can to home base. When the seeker is doing so, those who's already been found can go into hiding again!
Now come to think of it, what if the person who kicked the can was actually the person who'd been found when the seeker was not looking? Anyways I can't remember being the seeker (I'm sure I've had my fair share) but it sure was a thrill to kick the can real hard and watch the seeker cursing and swearing while everyone went hiding once more.
Shih Chung Branch School: Is Every School Haunted?
Yes.
As the student population declined, the third storey (mainly classrooms) was no longer in use when I enrolled. One day during Primary Four or Five, after class, we decided to do a little exploration. We went all the way up to the attic, which was surprisingly small, with barely enough room for three (it was me, Chew Lick Horn and another classmate). Nothing much there except a few pigeons which came in through the broken tiles.
On our way down, we passed by the third storey (I'm getting tremendous goosebumps as I'm writing this). In the middle of that floor was a wide corridor with classrooms on both sides, they were all shut. We tried the doors but they were locked (another wave of goosebumps!). Out of curiosity, I took a peep through the key hole (G~O~O~S~E~B~U~M~P~Y) of the first classroom on the left (such vivid details because it scared the daylight out of me) and guess what I saw?
No, not an eye staring back at me or little headless kids running around (will your skin age faster if you get too many goosebumps because the reflexes are overworking?). I saw a rocking chair (EPIC-GOOSE-BUMP-SSSS) and it was rocking...
The windows were all shut and what the hell was a rocking chair doing in an abandoned classroom? Even with the window opened and wind gushing in it shouldn't have rocked because it's made of metal!
I didn't scream or run, I just walked back down through the way I came up. I never went up to the third storey again.
As the student population declined, the third storey (mainly classrooms) was no longer in use when I enrolled. One day during Primary Four or Five, after class, we decided to do a little exploration. We went all the way up to the attic, which was surprisingly small, with barely enough room for three (it was me, Chew Lick Horn and another classmate). Nothing much there except a few pigeons which came in through the broken tiles.
On our way down, we passed by the third storey (I'm getting tremendous goosebumps as I'm writing this). In the middle of that floor was a wide corridor with classrooms on both sides, they were all shut. We tried the doors but they were locked (another wave of goosebumps!). Out of curiosity, I took a peep through the key hole (G~O~O~S~E~B~U~M~P~Y) of the first classroom on the left (such vivid details because it scared the daylight out of me) and guess what I saw?
No, not an eye staring back at me or little headless kids running around (will your skin age faster if you get too many goosebumps because the reflexes are overworking?). I saw a rocking chair (EPIC-GOOSE-BUMP-SSSS) and it was rocking...
The windows were all shut and what the hell was a rocking chair doing in an abandoned classroom? Even with the window opened and wind gushing in it shouldn't have rocked because it's made of metal!
I didn't scream or run, I just walked back down through the way I came up. I never went up to the third storey again.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Shih Chung Branch School: There’s A Party In My Tummy
I've always had problems with my tummy. People sometimes get butterflies in their tummies, I get rhinoceros in mine – meaning when they want to come out, they won't wait. One fine morning I was on my way to school and I felt this weird sensation in my tummy while half way there. Sensing something disastrous was about to be unleashed, I quickened my steps.
I managed to get into a cubicle but alas, not in time to take off my pants and they were soiled, a little. I knew I was the first to reach school (my house was 10 minutes away) so no point calling for help. I washed my pants with the tap in the cubicle while waited for the next person to arrive, which I know whom. Soon after, I heard footsteps outside the little boy's and sure enough it was Hoh Kok Hoe and his mum.
After sending Kok Hoe into the classroom she walked back towards the school gate, passing by the little boy's. This was how I went to her for help:
I had no idea why I went for help like that but she was kind enough to ask me to wait in the cubicle while she went to fetch my mum. She was also the nice lady who asked me to hide from Lim Lee Chin's father. Thank you, auntie.
She passed away many years ago from cancer.
I managed to get into a cubicle but alas, not in time to take off my pants and they were soiled, a little. I knew I was the first to reach school (my house was 10 minutes away) so no point calling for help. I washed my pants with the tap in the cubicle while waited for the next person to arrive, which I know whom. Soon after, I heard footsteps outside the little boy's and sure enough it was Hoh Kok Hoe and his mum.
After sending Kok Hoe into the classroom she walked back towards the school gate, passing by the little boy's. This was how I went to her for help:
I had no idea why I went for help like that but she was kind enough to ask me to wait in the cubicle while she went to fetch my mum. She was also the nice lady who asked me to hide from Lim Lee Chin's father. Thank you, auntie.
She passed away many years ago from cancer.
Shih Chung Branch School: A Brief History of A Bragging Loser
To give you an idea of how small the school population was: I won almost every competition there was: from sports to singing (people who knows me know I can't sing for shit) and from general knowledge to Chinese calligraphy (gasp!). I was either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd. And I've been awarded the role model student trophy, twice. And since Primary One, I've been in the top two of my class.
Bragging loser! I might as well have changed the first sentence to "to give you an idea of how smart I was..." or more aptly, "to give you an idea of how not smart I was..." because after Primary school, I didn't win a single thing while in high school! Zilch.
The school population was small: our class, consisted of approximately 35 students, was the largest. By the time we were Primary Six and ready to leave the school, Primary One has FOUR students. Those lucky kids had all the undivided attention from their teachers haha.
Anyways I think the enrollment rate declined due to the school's waning popularity (according to my mum at its peak the school had about 500 students and they had to limit new intakes), locality (there were many other schools nearby and people were moving into new towns) and funding (note the dilapidated ceilings and walls in some of the photos I post later).
In 1994 the land was sold and Shih Chung Branch School moved back to its main school at Love Lane. Total student population from the branch school in 1995 was 24.
In 1999 Shih Chung Branch School moved to its current location at Sungai Nibong and was give a new lease of life. As at January 2007 it has 1293 students in 22 classes.
Source: sjkcshihchung.blogspot.com
Bragging loser! I might as well have changed the first sentence to "to give you an idea of how smart I was..." or more aptly, "to give you an idea of how not smart I was..." because after Primary school, I didn't win a single thing while in high school! Zilch.
The school population was small: our class, consisted of approximately 35 students, was the largest. By the time we were Primary Six and ready to leave the school, Primary One has FOUR students. Those lucky kids had all the undivided attention from their teachers haha.
Anyways I think the enrollment rate declined due to the school's waning popularity (according to my mum at its peak the school had about 500 students and they had to limit new intakes), locality (there were many other schools nearby and people were moving into new towns) and funding (note the dilapidated ceilings and walls in some of the photos I post later).
In 1994 the land was sold and Shih Chung Branch School moved back to its main school at Love Lane. Total student population from the branch school in 1995 was 24.
In 1999 Shih Chung Branch School moved to its current location at Sungai Nibong and was give a new lease of life. As at January 2007 it has 1293 students in 22 classes.
Source: sjkcshihchung.blogspot.com
Shih Chung Branch School: The Swing of Death
I'm sure almost everyone's been on a swing before and I dare say it's one of the most thrilling playground structures ever built when operated without adult supervision.
The goal was always the same: to swing as high as you can and to land without the swing coming to a full stop.
OK we never achieved that but we sure had big dreams.
The goal was always the same: to swing as high as you can and to land without the swing coming to a full stop.
OK we never achieved that but we sure had big dreams.
Shih Chung Branch School: The Revolving Cone of Death
One of our favourite playground structures was the Revolving Cone of Death. It's like a half-opened gargantuan parasol, minus the canopy, with wooden planks connected into a hexagon (or maybe 8-sided) at the tip for you to step on. I think it was originally intended as a merry-go-round of sorts where you sit on the planks and some idiot would spin the cone for you while you enjoy the ride (yawn).
But not for us. We had to make it more fun and deadly, considering studying already took away half of our lives, we needed to make playtime worthwhile! So the game was the traditional "Police & Thieves", played on the revolving cone. Normally only three persons get to play on the cone at any one time because more than that it'd become too crowded. So the person assigned as "Police" will try to catch the two "Thieves" by running round and round the cone. If the police touched one of the thieves, that thief would become the police and the chase went on until someone puked their brains out or slipped into the cone or fell off the plank and died.
For the record, no one was killed by the revolving cone during my time but I'm sure it's lurking in the dark waiting for its victims.
But not for us. We had to make it more fun and deadly, considering studying already took away half of our lives, we needed to make playtime worthwhile! So the game was the traditional "Police & Thieves", played on the revolving cone. Normally only three persons get to play on the cone at any one time because more than that it'd become too crowded. So the person assigned as "Police" will try to catch the two "Thieves" by running round and round the cone. If the police touched one of the thieves, that thief would become the police and the chase went on until someone puked their brains out or slipped into the cone or fell off the plank and died.
For the record, no one was killed by the revolving cone during my time but I'm sure it's lurking in the dark waiting for its victims.
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