Childhood

in a few weeks' time, blk 119 bedok north rd will juz cease to be a memory. the 4-room apartment will be sold off and my nyai will come back n live in my house instead. i may not have lived there like my cuzzins after my yayi passed away. i guess for those 2 sisters, its even worse as the attachment to dat house is even greater after staying there for 2 yrs with her.

children nowadays go to school as early as 1 1/2 yrs of age. playgroups, montessori... juz wat else do they lack of? childhood.

growing up in a grp of 5 in dat house was like a free playgroup. there we were, my bro, me n my younger sis along wif the siblings cuzzins of ours, constantly playing n watching tv. my bro was the only guy, n since he was the eldest among us, he sort of bullied the rest of us.

• wen we played "masak-masak" with the cooking utensils toys, he made us serve him as he was our "boss". n he'd criticise whoever had the "worst cooking", wic often, was always his first younger sis as the 2nd one was "too young to cook".

• wen i was curious bout sesame street n wanted to watch on channel 12 (dat time there wasnt anything like kids central), he snatched away the remote control n switched to G.I.Joe, wic bcoz of dat, i cld never appreciate dat cartoon till now. n also y i never really knew the characters and songs from sesame street and barney.

• he'd "organise" our 50m sprints along the corridor with him having the biggest advantage coz he'd position himself in the middle so dat he had the biggest space to run. the rest of us had to endure certain detours coz there's wat u call laundries and plant pots at the sides. n not even once he lost to any of us. n my youngest sister wld always be trailing behind, to the extent of being the guinea pig to be scolded by the irritated neighbours coz the rest of us had already passed by then.

• wen i wanted to play "masak-masak" on my own without the other sidekicks, he ordered dat i keep the toys. instead he took out his whole army set of figurines n made me take the soldiers. only the unarmed soldiers. n he took the army tanks n other armed soldiers. before i even figured out how to play dat, he shot all my soldiers dead.

• after our "mengaji" classes, my bro would lead us to the nearest playground. the gals (inc me) wld take off our tudungs, pull up our kain-s and run towards the playground together with the other boys of the block. then we'd play hide-n-seek (wic is dumb lah coz u so can see wer whoever was) n the chasing game ("kejar-kejar") wic was the favourite. my grandma wld end up screaming at us from the 6th floor to go home n all of us got caned after dat.

• he created the fact dat the elder ones had the bigger say than the younger one. he got to be the best cartoon charaters. he was "fire" in captain planet and since my elder cuzzin took "wind", i had to be contented with "water". her sister had to accept reluctantly she was "earth" and my sister... "kau amik heart sudah." for ninja turtles, i was happy being "donatello" coz he was the smartest one anw (ehem!) n while there's only 4 turtles, my sister... "kau amik april sudah." sumhow now then i feel for her. she was like the "belen-belen".

it was juz those days that wld always make me smile everytime i passed by that area. the days wen "aksi mat yoyo" instead of "hi5" filled our lives, wen i knew more super marvel heroes than the cute carebears; spiderman, x-men, ironman (wic only captured the interest of my bro), fantastic 4...

i looked around under the blocks of flats of singapore. its very rare to see such happy times that the kids enjoy nowadays. those left playing are closely supervised by their parents or maids while those who werent... well, many (not all) do not seem to balance between schwork and playtime well. wic was wat childhood was bout in the 90's. fun with responsibility. at least, for my family i guess. n for many others too.

i'd never knew wat i've learnt from having these memories until i grew up. i've learnt to share, i've learnt to be contented with not having everything dat i wanted, i've learnt dat a drawn hopskotch, chasing games, "zero-point", 5 stones and others were more fun than the most expensive toys... i've learnt dat many many things can never be bought... lessons of life in a certain 6th floor unit of blk 119 bedok north rd.

i'll probably cry wen the keys get handed over to the new owner. :p

entry dedicated to: shahril, siti, mila and kai

-- originally dated 25/7/06