2007 came and went in a blur. I'm taking a moment to reflect. I found certain things that made my life more meaningful. Some gave me purpose. Some gave me hope. Some gave me freedom. Some gave me true happiness.

 

They say the grass is always greener on the other side. Opportunity did present itself. The introduction was brief but the offer was impressive, to say the least. It seemed like the culmination of years of hard work. The just reward, some would say. But opportunity's timing wasn't quite spot on. Some decisions are the hardest, yet these decisions make you realise you know what you're doing and you know what you want. Sometimes you just have to cross the road and wait for opportunity to come by again.

 

Oft times, when things start to look up, despair has a funny way of creeping back in. Life can be such a fragile thing. And hoping positively was the one thing that kept me going. Times like this we realise we have to stick together. In these dark moments, when you can't find the light, you know someone else will shine one on you.

 

Being on foreign soil several times last year made me feel empowered with a sense of freedom. It didn't make me a high-flyer. I was still very much grounded. But I enjoyed every moment of it. I realised what I've been missing out on. And through these brief excursions, I felt I was in control of my time and my work. Some experiences do make work satisfying.

 

The year, however, saved the best for last. The yesteryears of daydreaming were over. It took me far too long to realise that she's the one who's been there all along. I'd almost taken her for granted. And because of that, I almost let the notion of "us" slip away. I stopped chasing shadows. I stopped denying myself the opportunity of loving her. I stopped dreaming. I confessed how I felt about her all this while. I put my inhibitions to rest. I knew we did the right thing. I knew I'd found her, the love of my life.

 

Whatever this year holds, I'm glad I won't be walking the long road alone like the years before.

 

Scrabble Goddess and I attended My Chemical Romance's concert at Stadium Merdeka last Sunday. It was an awesome display of noise - from both the band and screaming teenage girls. To top it off, the heavens opened up for the entire duration of the concert as well.

 

By the time we got into the stadium, the first opening act, One Buck Short, was already playing. It was also steadily drizzling by then. Pop Shuvit was the next opening act after that and they played for about half hour to get the crowd going. I actually expected My Chemical Romance to start jamming at 8pm but all I saw were stage crew doing sound and equipment checks by then. And when the organisers started playing songs from the likes of Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins to kill time, you could see the crowd getting restless. Though that hardly deterred teenage girls with lungs as big as their body.

 

When Gerard Way came out with the band and started playing, the noise level exploded and the energy level surged. It was time to rock! My Chemical Romance played a lot of songs from their Black Parade album, some from their Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge album, and a couple from their earlier album (more like songs I didn't recognise). It was good stuff all the way. The more popular songs got the crowd singing along like a giant karaoke session. They played 2 songs for their encore and ended the night with Famous Last Words after playing for almost an hour and a half. It's too bad they didn't play Disenchanted though, my favourite song from their Black Parade album.

 

So we were wet and tired but I was glad I was there with Scrabble Goddess. She's got bundles of energy and I wouldn't have been there if it weren't for her.

 

 

 

Just over a month ago, I realised how neglecting and how nonchalant I've been towards her. How could I have been so blind to have missed all the road signs while I daydreamed on the wheel?

 

Almost 3 years ago, those large, doe-like eyes that peered over her workstation captivated me from the off. I was full of eagerness and earnest to get to know her. And know her I did. Little did I realise it was one of the smartest things I've done in a long time. Beginning with a simple namecard led to correspondence on the phone and instant messenger, and the rest, as we say, was history.

 

It was fun for me to bring a little laughter into her life and break the monotony and doldrums of work. And she brought a lot maturity, wit, sarcasm and laughter into our conversations and my life as well. She's a truly remarkable girl to be honest. Her independence, her selflessness, her sociability puts her in a class of her own. We shared a friendship bond that I deeply cherished. But eventually I realised there's more to her than just a good friend.

 

When I cast my thoughts to the past, I spent all those years chasing shadows when she was there all along. It came to a point when I asked myself "What was I thinking?". When I experienced joy and hardship, she'd be among the first to know. When I returned from business trips, she's the first person I'd wanna buzz. When she was interested in someone else, I felt my heart sink. And despite all that, I almost let the notion of "us" slip through my fingers.

 

So what snapped? Was it a spark of the moment? Or a gesture that changed my world? I think, to put it simply, I just woke up from my daydream. It happened the day the line was drawn. It was meant to govern our relationship. But I broke the rules of engagement. I would've lost "us" if I didn't. I was in denial for far too long. Now, I finally see her in a different light and with that I cast away the shadows.

 

There's a new love in my life. She is, the Scrabble Goddess.

Hi. My name is Wawa and I've been given the amazing opportunity to blog on the famous Danger Zone. I've known Ewok for over a year now and I still think he's the corniest guy I ever know. I'm now going to ask him if he likes corn. He asks me if it's Korn or corn. Sheesh. He then says that he likes Korn because it rhymes with corn. That is just a perfect example of how corny he is. He should be heading home soon to have dinner, a shower and wrestling. I think he's going to wrestle with his pet rat, which he lost. This goes to show that you should never give him any gifts. Not even for his birthday, because I tend to forget his birthday but at least I'm not as bad as him, he totally forgot mine, and this goes to show that you shouldn't be his friend. I have not blogged for about 5 months now, and my first blog entry after 5 months is on his blog. Why? Why??? Because he manipulates people. Now he asks if I'm getting mad, and I AM cos he forgot that I MOVED ON JAN 1ST, and I switched jobs on 1ST AUGUST. I'm writing all this down on his blog so that he won't have to ask me anymore. Now he's getting impatient because I'm typing too much.

 

As a closing note, I would like to reassure everyone that I do not normally type such useless nonsense blog posts such as this one. This one is as such because the owner of this blog is as such.

 

Thank you. Bye bye.  

Okay, here I am at Starbucks at The Weld waiting for the traffic snarl to clear before I chug my way home. For some reason I seem to have made some critical miscalculation cos the traffic now seems even heavier than it was an hour ago. So I figured I might as well work and blog a quickie at the same time...if people could actually do both, that is.
 
Transformers. Right. I watched it on Tuesday with Hot Babe. Now this is gonna be lame but I figured out why Hot Babe and Transformers are so alike - they're both "more than meets the eye". HAHA...  Corny line. Couldn't help it. Now if only she could transform...
 
Well, anyway, the movie was awesome. I'm gonna watch it again, if I can. It really brings back memories when I was a kid. Optimus Prime in the cartoon was as much an icon for kids back then as red underwear was to Superman. The tranformation sequences were quite eye-popping as well. I think I would've preferred if they'd made the Transformers stay more true to the original. I mean Megatron as an alien jet? Come on! Okay, so maybe it wouldn't be realistic for a gargantuan Megatron to transform into a puny gun but something along those lines would've been good. Say, a cannon perhaps. And more familiar names for the Decepticons would've been welcome. Who the heck is Barricade? They should have introduced Decepticons like Thundercracker or Rumble or Soundwave. Hang on, was that radio Decepticon supposed to be Soundwave? Seriously, I thought the best looking Transformer in the movie was Starscream. I managed to pick out some lines which they "borrowed" from the cartoon movie. "It's just you and me, Megatron." - said by Optimus Prime in both movie versions. Still, the movie is coolness personified. I've to watch it again.
 
Which reminds me, I should go home and look for my set of Constructicons toys. That'll be part 2, when I can find and unite them into Devastator. I should snap a photo when I'm done! Okay, part 2 will be oh, next month? Haha...

Yep, that's me. In a small competition group with friends at least. I should've posted this up when the English Premier League season ended.

 

Hey, at least let me have some bragging rights. It's not easy having to pick a good point-scoring team for 38 weeks that doesn't sink after the third week. And look at it this way, I managed to finish in 9,456th position out of 1,280,290 players. Not too shabby I would say.

 

Gimme a break okay? It's just some small measure of personal satisfaction. To me, that's called life's simple pleasures.

I watched the display board. It read "270". I gripped the tiny piece of paper tight. Depending on how you look at it, time was either with me or against me. I kept glancing at my watch. I wanted time to be against me. Not that I relished it but beating time would've been for personal satisfaction. It's like when you were little and being able to run to the toilet to pee without wetting your shorts (or skirts) before you stepped in.

 

This was a somewhat different circumstance. It read "280". I looked at the crowd. Anxious faces tuned in to the display board. And those numbers seemed to have everyone locked in a trance. Even a sexy Mariah Carey music video didn't have that sort of pulling effect. But the numbers aren't moving fast enough. Everyone was just waiting with bated breath. Everyone wanted to dictate those numbers, but only she had control over them.

 

She made anxiety a game. It read "290". And with all games, there are winners and losers. As the numbers progressively increased, the crowd began to disperse. Many had given up, while the winners strode forth in triumph. Like Roman gladiators they were...running from the hungry lion.

 

So close yet so far. It read "300". I had 10 minutes tops if I'd any chance of being victorious against time. There were only a handful of people left waiting for their um, deliverance. Some even walked up to her and enquired their chances. It was as if our fate was in her hands. And I don't think they were pretty hands to leave our fate in.

 

She called a stop at "305". My heart sank. I saw forlorn figures resigning themselves to defeat. But there was still time. I could still make it. Come on, just push the bloody magic button! And she did. I couldn't believe it. I must've dated Lady Luck without knowing it!

 

"310". My magic number. It happened. I beat time. "Alright, no more check-ins after 310", was what the ground staff manager said. I smiled at the girl behind the check-in counter and told her, "My lucky day."

 

I had just about 15 minutes to get through customs, get to the boarding gate, get through security, and board the plane. Catching the earlier shuttle flight back from Singapore. Who would've thought there'd be such drama behind it? Haha...

How do you even begin to describe a girl like her? I've been thinking about it on my drive home last night and on my way to work this morning. There doesn't seem enough positive adjectives in the dictionary to put her in words. Where do I even start?

 

I mean, every day you might have the opportunity of meeting new people from all walks of life. But ever get the feeling that that new person whom you just met simply stands out among the crowd? And I don't mean that person is vertically inclined. It's like when you talk to that person you know he or she is...unique. Different. Intriguing. You could even say that person is truly blessed. Blessed with captivating wit, youthful exuberance, stimulating intellect, undying faith, endless energy, shining disposition, solid confidence...   And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

She's all that. And more. It's such a delight talking to her. Articulate. Linguistic. Smart. She's like a breath of fresh air in my stuffy little brain. I find it hard to believe she's still under the big three-zero. And how it's possible for someone to have seen so much in the world today and yearn for more tomorrow. I'm sure the countless lives that she's touched with her vibrant demeanor would have embraced her with open arms. I know I would...if I could.

 

It's amazing how people like her turn up in your life. You could never fathom the sort of emotional imprint she'd make on you. And it's not like footprints on the beach that gets washed away. Hey, I don't deny the fact that I really admire her. I believe there's one word that she truly epitomises - WORLDLY. And when I think about it, I get the feeling she's like an angel among us.

 

All the "what ifs" playing in my mind. Now, if only I knew where she keeps her pair of wings...

You know TNT, the courier delivery service provider?

 

One word describes the girls who work there.

 

Dynamite.

This will probably be my last entry.

 

For the year.

 

I'm trying to rewind and playback.

 

There were choices. There were hesitations. There were decisions. There was freedom. There was disappointment. There were tears. There were grouses. And of course, there were the lame jokes.

 

Change is inevitable. No matter how comfortable you are in your own cosy little zone, everything else around you is changing. I'd put it off for far too long. Procrastinator. Yeap, that's me.

 

I still don't know what decided things for me. Maybe I was a victim of circumstance. But ever since I started working, I've always paved my own roads. Maybe subconciously, I know what I wanted and that pulled me in the direction I wanted to go. I believe if you put enough thought into something, there's no right or wrong direction. It's what you do after deciding which way to go that makes it right or wrong.

 

And I did a lot of thinking while I was holidaying in England in July. In 30 years of my life, I don't think I've had a better experience. It made me realise what I've been missing out on. It made me realise there are others more important than myself. It changed my perception about certain issues.

 

People say all things happen for a reason. Do they? Seriously? I didn't know what to think. It changed my life. It was a bleak moment. I felt lost for a time. It didn't matter what others thought. But something happened along the way. Something that changed the way I feel and think about it all. Somewhere I saw the strength and the will. Perhaps there was a silver lining to be found after all. One thing's for certain. We have to soldier on.

 

I've mulled over choices in life. I've made life-altering decisions. I've found a sense of freedom. I've felt disappointments. I've embraced dark moments. I've hoped for better days to come. I've lived through 2006. Well, almost.

 

Here's to the new year everyone. May we all have better days to come our way.

What I saw this morning made me realise that some people just simply have a death wish. I was on my way to work and I arrived at this intersection that feeds out onto a highway. An Indian lady, probably working for the local city council, was standing in the middle of the road at that very intersection, broom and dustpan in hand, sweeping sand on the bloody road! I looked twice and three times to be sure she was actually sweeping and not some witch trying to cross the road. And I'm pretty sure every other car jammed up at the intersection was thinking the same thing I was - "WTF?!"

 

She was obviously oblivious to the fact that one minute she could be potential employee of the month for braving traffic to do her duty and next minute becoming an ugly roadkill smear on the road. It's like she had radioactive roti canai for breakfast which fried her brain cells extra crispy. But what was surprising was that nobody honked at her; every driver just steered clear of her nonchalant sweeping and took off down the highway. Let's hope all she made was a sandstorm from her sweeping instead of headlines in tomorrow's papers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of roti canai, the government has finally put paid to rumours that our Malaysian astronauts would be making teh tarik and flipping roti canai in space. These people just love toying with the minds of poor taxpayers like us. All the while we thought we were sending clowns up there with the objective of opening a mamak stall in the space station. Well, at least they'll be making themselves useful in space performing various experiments in the name of science. I guess now we'll never know if you can toss a roti canai in zero gravity without tearing it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A good friend told me today that Valentine's is about going through tough times together to see the sunshine, and that includes having stomach aches together. So I'm thinking, when the couple takes medicine together in the form of 'Po Chai' pills (they're Chinese medicine for stomach cramps in case you didn't know), there's going to be a new phrase this Valentine's. No more I love yous. Listen up people - "I Po Chai you".

The biggest parody in the history of motion pictures, I believe, will happen next month. Seriously, nothing can prepare Malaysia for the most humourous calamity of cinematic proportions.

 

Cicak-Man! (Yes, they have a flashy website, much like many foreign movies these days.)

 

To borrow and translate a line from Superman:
"Lihat kat langit tu!"
"Burung ke?"
"Kapal terbang kot."
"Laa, Cicak-Man konon."

 

Cicak-Man's probably like Spider-Man; you know, the whole sticking to walls thing, superhuman strength, just that Cicak-Man's got a nasty tongue to lick and whoop the villain's ass. They could make Cicak-Man as a member of the 'Liga Keadilan Malaysia' (LKM). Okay, so it doesn't have quite the same ring as Justice League of America but what the heck.

 

Together with other superheroes of the LKM, Cicak-Man and his 'member-member' would battle the evil forces of pirated DVD peddlers, 'duit kopi' policemen, snatch thieves, and Mat Rempits.

 

So who's in this LKM? Well, for sure we must have Keluang-Man. He's arguably the pioneer of super-heroism in Malaysia. His alter-ego is that of a mental patient, which makes it easy for him to sneak out at night and be the local crime fighter. Okay, now we need a sidekick for Keluang-Man. Let's call him Pipit (you know, burung pipit). Pipit can be one of the minders at the mental hospital where Keluang-Man stays.

 

The LKM also needs someone to man their headquarters, The Tempurung. And who better to do it than Katak-Man cos he just loves to hide under there.

 

No superhero story would be complete without villains! The crime lord behind the world of criminals would be The Biawak. I mean, the name itself sounds menacing enough - Biawak. Go on, say it - BIAWAK. Enough to send shivers down Keluang-Man's underwear and up Pipit's armpits. The Biawak is just plain BIG, with powers of camouflage, like the colours of Benetton.

 

Right, so The Biawak needs minions. Bring on the triad of pestilence - The Nyamuk, Black Lalat, and Lipas-Man. The Nyamuk could suck the shit out of our heroes and Black Lalat, well, he'll just give you a bad shit. And Lipas-Man? I don't know. Maybe he could scare the shit out of people by being dirty and smelly.

 

So that's the gist of it, from my point of view. Come to think of it, can you imagine the possibilities from this franchise? Just keep adding them heroes and villains - Belalang-Man, Lebah-Man, Roti-Man, etc. We're talking movies, comics, cartoon series, action figures, and merchandise baby! Okay, so who wants to buy my ideas? I'm all ears.

...does money change people in ways we never expect?

 

...does my neighbour's daughter have to turn into such a knockout after high school?

 

...do guys driving modded Proton Wiras have to give me a "you-stole-my-mother's-roti-canai" look when I get the better of them in my Mitsubishi-powered 16-year old Proton?

 

...do people contact me only when they need help and not to say hi?

So I'm sitting here typing this on Notepad as my office's network succumbed to a viral infection for the second day running. In all my years here, this isn't the first time either. Everytime it happens, I realise our constant dependency on technology. And it's not just the internet I'm talking about, it's everything - from mobile phones that can do your laundry for you to remotes that turn off your table lamp and flush your toilet.

 

I can't remember the last time I sat at a Starbucks joint and not see someone sipping a latte while getting his/her eyes radiated by their laptop. For some reason, many of these people always sit alone, perhaps hoping for someone to come along and buy them another latte and hopefully dinner in the process. All along I thought Starbucks was a place to meet a blind date or get together with your buds and find out who's getting married next year. Then again you could do that sitting alone with a laptop and latte through a miracle called instant messaging, or IM as we techno geeks like to call it. "I'm already at Starbucks...downing my 18th latte...I'm feeling blue so I'm in a blue shirt." And the blind date is at another Starbucks the other side of town tapping away at her O2 PDA, "I've been here for an hour already but I don't see you." Communication breakdown? Definitely.

 

Last Saturday I was at the comic shop and the lady running the shop was telling me her 9 year old daughter has been pestering her for a mobile phone because her classmates each have one. I was thinking like "When I was 9, I was just learning to use the damn payphone cos I was finally tall enough to reach the bloody coin slot!" Now parents are giving their kids camera phones so that they can take videos of their classmates slapping the crap out of each other and post it on YouTube. Next thing you know, technology has condemned some kid to expulsion from school and life as a pirated DVD peddler.

 

Sometimes technology borders on the ridiculous. Couple of years back, I saw a CDROM drive that came with a remote. It's like the manufacturer expects you to sit in a couch with a wireless keyboard and mouse 6 feet away from the CPU and have a maid standing by to change CDs for you. Because if you were within reach of the CDROM drive you'd be wasting the remote that came with it.

 

But don't get me wrong. I don't despise technology. It's a part of all our lives. I doubt I'll go overboard if I meet a friend carrying a mobile phone that triples as a DSLR camera and mobile computer. But yea, I'm grateful for laptops that let me type a simple blog post and internet that lets me post it up. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why I can log into my blog but not IM. So much for technology.

Just the other day, Dots asked me if water rots. I told her it would if she added melons to it. And today she asked me if a banana was a vegetable. If I didn't know better, I bet she's on some personal agenda to prove that I flunked kindy and only have an IQ of 80. If that was true, I probably made it through primary and secondary school by masterminding headline acts of arson by burning the exam paper locker room after every year's finals so the teachers could do nothing but let us all pass. Next she's gonna ask me if papayas have fur.

I logged into my Friendster account today and came across the box that showed the 10 most "popular searches in my network". For some peculiar reason, it seemed to tell a story.

 

People, or friends, within my Friendster network are either unemployed or unhappy at work, so they start looking at their daily horoscope hoping to find that silver lining as their salvation. And what could be more obvious when they start looking for job classifieds?

 

This search list could also point to the fact that most of them are youngsters with a passion for fast cars and drift racing. Hopefully they don't get too obsessed with Tokyo Drift and turn Genting Highlands into another Mt. Akina, you know, like in Initial D. Anyway, the realisation dawned upon these youngsters that they'll never be able to afford that dream Mazda RX8 since they are most probably unemployed, so they must have decided to find used cars for sale instead. "Maybe a modded 4th hand Proton Saga would do fine", they must have thought.

 

A lot of them must have some ties with the USA too I reckon. They could be Americans. They could be ABC (American-Born Chinese). They could have an American partner. They could plain love George Bush because he loves the word "nucular". But clearly, these people are all ready for the 4th of July, complete with flags, fireworks, and even an outdoor BBQ grill party!

 

The people in my network must also have terrible memory because they forget to buy birthday cards for their friends and have to resort to free birthday cards online. Oh wait, then again, so do I.

I was lucky enough to catch the premieres of both Mission: Impossible 3 and The Da Vinci Code. This'll just be a quick pen on what I thought about both movies.

 

 

Mission: Impossible 3
Ethan Hunt was back with the same old Tom Cruise charm and swagger, leading his IM force on supposedly "impossible" missions. Mission: Impossible 3 is fast-paced, action-packed, and literally explosive.

 

From what I observed, the entire movie is made up of 3 missions (hence the movie title perhaps?), travelling from Berlin to The Vatican and finally Shanghai, each with an unexpected twist to the plot. Ethan Hunt is now engaged, Ving Rhames returns as the computer whiz, and we've got 2 new faces to the IM force. To be honest, I could never pinpoint what Maggie Q's character was there for.

 

The non-stop action, clever disguises, and high-tech weaponry and gadgets is reminiscent of Alias. After all, J.J. Abrams created Alias and directed M:I3. If you asked me, Mission: Impossible 3 is way better than M:I2. However, I would've liked a little more subtlety in the way the missions were carried out. Somehow blowing something up in every mission made the IM force agents look more like elite soldiers rather than covert agents.

 

Oh, and the nitroglycerin detonator brain implant was impressively cool. I think Mission: Impossible 3 merits a 7.5/10 for me.

 

The Da Vinci Code
From a fictional point of view, the movie deserves merit for making controversies seem believable, although the ending was a real shot in the foot. I'm no Christian and neither have I read the book so I offer no opinions from the religious or reader's viewpoints, not that I would want to anyway.

 

The premise of the story stems from claims that Jesus was Mary Magdalene's husband and that he fathered a daughter by the name of Sarah. And through the centuries, Jesus' bloodline, which has survived till this very day, was protected by an order known as the Priory of Sion while the Catholic sect known as Opus Dei sought to destroy all evidence of this secret.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, the controversies make the whole story seem believable, coupled with the puzzles and cryptic anagrams that add even more mystery to the plot. Sadly though, I felt the movie lacked emotion. Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon and the French chick was wanting in chemistry, even after they uncovered the startling truth at the end.

 

Sir Ian McKellen, as Sir Leigh Teabing the Holy Grail fanatic, thankfully, managed to breathe some life into the emotionally-challenged first half of the movie. At least he injected some wit and humour into the second half. Even the murderous monk, Silas, was better portrayed than Langdon, as he did his bidding as a "servant of God". The best bits of the movie must be how historical events reenact themselves in complement to the characters' opinions.

 

Maybe because of the excessive coverage and hype leading up to the premiere, I felt the overall movie lacked a certain spark. Here's my advice to people who have yet to watch the movie and never read the book: Stay focussed on the plot and remember that it's all fictional and you won't lose sight of what's going on.

 

7/10 for me.

Teachers. Love them, hate them, admire them. Regardless of how much effort they put into making us monkeys students better people or how much torture they inflict on our daily lives, you just gotta sing their praises. Well, at least some of them deserve it.

 

I think 'perseverence' is the first word they teach in teacher's college. They could probably spell it forwards, backwards, upside down...you name it. Deservedly, Teachers' Day is a rightful tribute to their efforts and hardship.

 

Coming from an all-boys school, some teachers undoubtedly left truly lasting impressions during my high school days.

Mr. Ng a.k.a. Dungeonmaster
Mr. Ng was my Physics teacher in Form 6. What's with the nickname, right? People who have watched the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon would surely know Dungeonmaster, the magically-endowed dwarf-sized guide to the kids lost in the world of D&D. Well, Mr. Ng possesses no magic powers whatsoever but he bears an uncanny resemblance to Dungeonmaster. In other words, very short and balding. Most hilarious moment was the day Mr. Ng forgot to pull up his zipper. Eventually, someone summed up enough courage to break the news to him and at that very moment, 40-over pairs of eyes shot in the direction of his crotch. The look on Mr. Ng's face was priceless.

 

Mr. Kumaresen
Mr. Kumar was my Additional Mathematics teacher in Form 4 and 5. He's a health freak. You'll see why. Almost every lesson, he would review the previous lesson's math problems by writing the problem on the board and picking someone at random to solve it. If you did his homework, well, you'd have more than half a chance at solving it, provided your brain didn't freeze up when he called your name. Now, if you can't solve the problem or did it wrongly, Mr. Kumar would simply smile and say "That's not right, boy. Go down 10 times." That's 10 push-ups. Needless to say, thanks to Mr. Kumar, some of us have pretty strong biceps.

 

Mrs. Theng
Mrs. Theng was my form teacher in Form 4 and 5. She taught us Mathematics. My classmates and I often wondered what her age was. She carried herself like a "thai-thai" but with elegance and fashion sense of a career woman. She was stern enough to control us monkeys and yet kind enough to help us in our Additional Math problems. I think I can safely say Mrs. Theng got thumbs up from my classmates an I and earned our respect. And of course, how could we forget her trademark - "Lapan ratus simian puluh simian."

 

Mr. E.L. Lim
Mr. Lim taught my class Physics in Form 4. Physics was a nightmarish subject for us science students due to difficulty to grasp basic concepts. But somehow Mr. Lim was able to weave everyday examples into his lessons that somewhat made it a little easier to understand. One of his favourite past-times is to walk around the science lab to check our homework and give us a pat on the back if we didn't do his homework. That's a pat with the strength of a bear. He left our school later that very year to further his studies in science and a few years ago, I read an article in the papers about him being one of the few successful Malaysians abroad.

 

En. Abdul Razak
Cikgu Razak was my Bahasa Malaysia teacher in Form 2. I don't remember anything about his lessons really. But I do remember his "Mat Rock" look, especially those bell bottom pants! Talk about old school. What was most memorable though, were the days after our finals exam. Since there wasn't anything left to teach, the class somehow managed to persuade him to let us play football during his lesson. And for the remainder of his lessons for that year, everytime he stepped into class, we'd all ask him in unison, "Cikgu, main bola!!!"

 

Ms. Carol Soars
Ms. Carol was an awesome English teacher. I think her grasp of the language is exemplary and she used that knowledge to show us the finer details of grammar. When she offered to teach 1119 English to Form 4 and 5 students, many of us signed up for her class. She was very strict and particular about us doing her homework though. In the end I got a C3 for 1119 English. Maybe that's why I never made it to be a copywriter.

 

Ms. Joyce Lim
Ms. Joyce taught English to my class in Form 4. She had the unfortunate luck of having one of her class period slotted just after Phys. Ed. lesson, which basically means most of us would 'ponteng' her class to play more football. Once she got really pissed and stormed to the field to chase us back to class. Ms. Joyce also had the reputation for being, well, sexy. Look at it this way - miniskirts in an all-boys school tend to send hormones raging like bulls.

 

Well, those are some of the teachers who made lasting impressions in my head. Of course, it doesn't mean I don't remember the other teachers who have taught me over the years. There's Mrs. Wong, Pn. Adura, Pn. Rushaimi, Pn. Hamidah, Mr. Lee...the list goes on. Anyway, this is a tribute to all of them for Teachers' Day. Maybe I'll write about the others next year...