At which point I just stopped living

Spring Cleaning came to a halt last week as a result of my unfortunate accident with the common cold, sore throat and the tummy ache, but it resumed this afternoon, and will commence throughout the span of the week leading up to Chinese New Year.

I found out that I was quite the kid back in Primary School. For starters, I was actually top of my class for most of my stay in Primary School, but dipped later in Secondary School because of over-fascination on sports, video games and of course - crushes.

Too bad none of that enthusiasm for life brought forward to the present, but since we're all nostalgic creatures, I present a side of me no one here would have seen.

I've clean forgotten them myself, actually.



Arthur Wong, Lego Champion.

I was in Primary School when I picked up the fascination for making something out of little plastic blocks. My bugged my parents for Lego sets every now and then, but because we're not too well-off and the plastic blocks actually cost a bomb (they still do), I would only have the said few to play around with.

Which was a good thing because that actually trained my imagination, letting me come up with all sorts of creative things I could build with the same old blocks.

My skill was put to the test when I was entered into a Lego competition which was held at the void deck of some HDB - it's the one next to the KFC, across from the Community Centre in Yishun.

Participants were seated in a round circle and they all had a HUGE stack of blocks in front of them. The contest was 30 minutes long, and we had free reign of what we could build. I was lucky because my table had kids who didn't do much, leaving me a lot of building blocks (haha).

I made this spaceship with a cockpit, four wings, and a weapons system consisting of red and white missiles and laser beams. The whole thing must have stood at least 15cm high and it was color-coded.

Kind spiffy for a Primary School kid huh?

Anyway, I won first prize and this plane here's my reward.




Eye Heart Science.

Pictured here are my Young Environmentalist and Young Botanist Badge. This was from my ECA when I was in Primary School, and I seriously think they were the easiest to get because I had a pretty packed schedule when I was back in school.

I was with the school badminton team, the school mini-tennis team, the school library, the school dance club, and of course the Science Club.

I now sit at home on most days figuring out what I can do with all that free time. Geez.

Anyway, I've been an avid lover of all things science (my physics teacher in Secondary School was exceptionally worth avid loving) since I could remember. Reading dinosaur books and watching television really helped cultivate that love for the weird.

So next time you see me, don't be surprised if I could tell a frog from a toad, the different types of rain clouds, how a tree reproduces, or explain condensation!




The Energy of Youth.

Woah! You mean he's not a loser?

Ok, here are the few achievements I've managed to gather in the sporting front. I found them at the back of my dusty closet so they must mean a lot to me.

Standing right in front is the Bronze for Inter-Class Table Tennis. I won this because I was a reserve and the rest of my classmates were pretty good at the game. Ask me out for a table tennis date any day and I'll show you why our team didn't get gold.

Next are Inter-Class Basketball Gold and Bronze. I'm pretty tall, and I think that's helped me somewhat in securing the titles. Pretty good shot too for all I can remember, so that might've done something about the color of the prizes too. Anyhoo I moved on from that to play for the school team during my Junior College periods.

They called me "Ah Zek", which is some dialect for Old Man. This is because I hated to run during the game. Notice there are no Track and Field cups there.

The last two are Short Putt and Mini-Tennis, both Silver. I can't throw a punch for nuts now (well, maybe at tofu) but back then I could harness all my would-be teenage angst and use that to toss a metal ball pretty damn far.

My tennis career, although short-lived, remains the most fun of my Primary School life. The coach was also my form teacher (here's to you Mr Teo Keng Koon!) and he picked me out during one of our PE lessons where he tried to teach us all how to use the racket to hit a ball instead of one another.

I remember being scolded a lot because I would use my wrist during swings (being my influence from badminton).

The trophy was for an Inter-Club tournament. I was beaten by the drop shot(s). While I had a lot of energy, patience wasn't really my virtue (I beg to differ now). The impatient get hasty, and the hasty gets careless.

But let it be knowm that I've never lost an Inter-School match. That was done pretty well by my teammates though.

Well there you have it - a summary of my firs few years on this world. God knows what happened in the middle to turn me into this mess.

For those who know and like me despite all I've done, thank you. One of the most important thing you can give to someone is acknowledgement, and I have truely felt that, whether it be because I came crying or you saw me needing some.

0 comments:

Post a Comment