THE EGG
I woke up this morning with no one at home. Fearing the worse had come to my family via a deadly contagious mutant virus which turned humans to zombies , I looked quickly into the mirror and gave a sigh of relief. I was normal.
Armed with my Digicam, in case my family members invited their zombie friends to sleep over I proceeded to check every corner of the house, intending to blind them with the flash and take a photo of them all at the same time- which would hopefully land me a job at The Straits Times as a photojournalist.
As I walked into the dining hall, the main door started to open with a creeking sound.
Mum: Boy ah, got egg muffin for breakfast k.
Me: Ok.
And she left. Just like that. It was as if she came all the way up to tell me that the egg muffin could be eaten, which was probably the case.
Still thinking about the strange encounter with my mum, I proceeded to peel the burger open and slot in a slice of cheese and an egg. Grabbing my muffin I lumbered my way in front of the TV set and started to systematically change the channels while stuffing the muffin into my mouth.
After quite a while of channel surfing which was by far my favourite pastime involving a TV set, I settled on Channel News asia.
At this moment I noticed something sticky dripping on my shirt. Praying that it was not blood from someone(or something for that matter) who was taking refuge on my ceiling, I opened my eyes to an even more horrendous sight.
(minors be warned. Only 18 year olds and older may proceed)
The egg yolk in my egg was dripping a copious amount of yellow liquid yolk on my shirt.
Cursing the hen who laid the egg, I proceeded to suck the yolk dry , which was an art in itself , and gobbled the entire muffin to destroy any evidence of having eaten it. (which is pointless really if you think about it.)
After changing from my protein-and-cholesterol drenched shirt, I thought about the strange behaviour of my mother this morning and wondered if this was her idea of a Chinese New Year Joke.
New year jokes aside, I got down to doing the real business.
I picked up my handphone and messaged my fellow bandmate, Xinhui to ask her if she was going back to Hai Sing.
Me: Hey you going back to Hai Sing?
After waiting for some time, which was spent testing out my new digital camera, I finally felt my phone virbrating.
XH: Hi. You back in Hai Sing le? Sorry I just woke up.
After messenging back and forth and coming into the grips with the fact I was going alone, set off, with the camera in my bag.
THE SCHOOL
By the time I got to Hai Sing, the celebration was already over. Throngs of students were walking towards me. Fearing a revolt to outsiders entering the school, I took to walking towards the minimart near the school when I heard my name being shouted.
"DANIEL!"
I nearly (WARNING: CLICHE) jumped out of my skin upon hearing my name. In the army, hearing your name being called was never a good thing.
Expecting to see gansters wielding 11 inch parangs, I saw to my relief that they were my band juniors. After exchanging pleasantries and finding the atmosphere a bit more friendly, I bade them goodbye and walked to the school gate.
I found a blue security guard sentry post and tried to tactically monoeuvre past him. He spotted me just as I got out of sight and beaconed me forward.
"You may not pass" he said slowly, his long fingers pointing towards a hard cover book. I suspected it was a record of the many victims he had taken down.
"You may not pass unless..." His eye brows were knitted.
"You produce your IC or student pass"
Producing my 11B seemed to having a calming effect on the agitated security guard. I suspect it is the lush green colour.
After gaining entry , I began my elusive search for teachers, which certainly felt like looking for survivors in the tsunami, considering the number of teachers who had already left from my batch and found one of them at one of the darkest corner of the school.
The HOD room, which seconded only the principal's office was recently voted Hai Sing's second darkest corner.
I found Mr. Njoo with a bunch of students and quietly , I sat at a corner, waiting in queue for it to be my turn to talk to him. The students who now surrounded him wanted to take a picture and searching for a person to take it, found me.
"DANIEL!" He proclaimed.
At this moment I wondered what was with my name that caused people to shout it aloud.
Gesticulating wildly and putting his arms around me all at the same time, he gave me a warm embrace.
"Antique, you know. Antique. From the 2001 batch."
I kept expecting the cleaning auntie to run from the toilet to chastise him properly for man-handling such a priceless work of art while dusting me with her purple feathers.
After struggling out of his vice-like grip,I hung around for a little longer. Upon his annoucement for an urgent need for him to attend more pressing matters, I drifted off towards the teachers' room which was markedly brighter.
Ms. Mariana was my former Chemistry teacher and I found her chatting with her former pupils who like me, visited Hai Sing once in a while. I stood behind them for some time and suddenly they stopped their conversation and moved off with me tailing behind, seemingly dismissing me as an apparation.
In fact, she was so engrossed in catching up and oblivious to my presence, I suspected that should I suddenly blow up, she would wrinkle her nose and ask who farted, arms akimbo.
She finally turned around, thanks in part to my heavy breathing and found me. I half expected her to yelp in terror and scream bloddy murder when she saw that the apparation was indeed a living breathing being.
She smiled instead and bidding goodbye to her two students, turned to me.
" Hello." she said, as if we met only yesterday.
And then we started catching up. She commented on my new found talkativesness which she insisted was a good thing and said that I had gotten thinner while I told her how guys in NS got girlfriends because they thought the 2 days they had with each other wouldn't be spent quarelling.
I thought of counter examples and told her about my friend who went into camp every week bemoaning the fact that his girlfriend was going to "break" with him so often so that the "unusual " thing would be him to come in and tell us of a wonderful weekend spent with his girlfriend.
But I digress.
After chatting for a little longer, Mdm Zaibon ( I keep remembering it as Bonzai for some reason. Must be the hair. ) the band teacher-in-charge came up to her to invite her out for lunch.
"You know Khasrul? His batch one la "
After searching for a match, she finally regconised me as someone who came to help out in the band.
I said goodbye to Ms. Mariana and hoping to find more teachers to talk to, went one round to the HOD room again.
THE STRANGER
Finding none, I was intending on going back when I passed by someone who seemed to remember me.
"DANIEL!"
Remembering faces was one of the most daunting task I had taken and this time her face drew a blank which I suspected registered on my face as well.
"I'm Shevon." Nothing still.
I felt suitably embarrassed since she seemed to remember me so well and tried to wiggle out of the uncomfortable situation by asking her questions.
"Hey. So who are you looking for?" I loved one syllabus greetings.
She said some names which I couldn't recognise and having found someone who could chat with me , accompanied her to look for some of them.
While looking for one of them I sneaked off and took some pictures. Enjoy!
What an interesting means of leaving your mark on the school.
Imagine being 40 and bringing back your kids to the school you tell them,while pointing to one of the many tiles,
" See papa draw one."
Now, I dont want to brag but one of the pond was single-handedly dug by me. OK. Maybe not single-handedly but anyhow, at least I got something to tell my children.
"see Papa help to build one"
I can almost imagine the admiration in their eyes.
After taking a few more pictures, Shevon came out and having seen me with a Digital camera, took out her own film camera and started snapping around.
" My mum don't let me use her Digital Camera la."
"I see."
" These pictures are for my webpage."
" Hey you got MSN?" I asked.
She gave a positive answer and helped me to type my e-mail address in her handphone and her e-mail address in mine.
"how to retrieve your address ah?"
She looked at me as if I had the HIV and then said,
"Your own phone also don't know."
Trying to salvage the situation which was rapidly declining in my favour, I took to my last resort.
"Hey, I go first k?"
"OK.I might be on MSN tonight"
I took off.
Cursing the hen who laid the egg, I proceeded to suck the yolk dry , which was an art in itself , and gobbled the entire muffin to destroy any evidence of having eaten it. (which is pointless really if you think about it.)
After changing from my protein-and-cholesterol drenched shirt, I thought about the strange behaviour of my mother this morning and wondered if this was her idea of a Chinese New Year Joke.
New year jokes aside, I got down to doing the real business.
I picked up my handphone and messaged my fellow bandmate, Xinhui to ask her if she was going back to Hai Sing.
Me: Hey you going back to Hai Sing?
After waiting for some time, which was spent testing out my new digital camera, I finally felt my phone virbrating.
XH: Hi. You back in Hai Sing le? Sorry I just woke up.
After messenging back and forth and coming into the grips with the fact I was going alone, set off, with the camera in my bag.
THE SCHOOL
By the time I got to Hai Sing, the celebration was already over. Throngs of students were walking towards me. Fearing a revolt to outsiders entering the school, I took to walking towards the minimart near the school when I heard my name being shouted.
"DANIEL!"
I nearly (WARNING: CLICHE) jumped out of my skin upon hearing my name. In the army, hearing your name being called was never a good thing.
Expecting to see gansters wielding 11 inch parangs, I saw to my relief that they were my band juniors. After exchanging pleasantries and finding the atmosphere a bit more friendly, I bade them goodbye and walked to the school gate.
I found a blue security guard sentry post and tried to tactically monoeuvre past him. He spotted me just as I got out of sight and beaconed me forward.
"You may not pass" he said slowly, his long fingers pointing towards a hard cover book. I suspected it was a record of the many victims he had taken down.
"You may not pass unless..." His eye brows were knitted.
"You produce your IC or student pass"
Producing my 11B seemed to having a calming effect on the agitated security guard. I suspect it is the lush green colour.
After gaining entry , I began my elusive search for teachers, which certainly felt like looking for survivors in the tsunami, considering the number of teachers who had already left from my batch and found one of them at one of the darkest corner of the school.
The HOD room, which seconded only the principal's office was recently voted Hai Sing's second darkest corner.
I found Mr. Njoo with a bunch of students and quietly , I sat at a corner, waiting in queue for it to be my turn to talk to him. The students who now surrounded him wanted to take a picture and searching for a person to take it, found me.
"DANIEL!" He proclaimed.
At this moment I wondered what was with my name that caused people to shout it aloud.
Gesticulating wildly and putting his arms around me all at the same time, he gave me a warm embrace.
"Antique, you know. Antique. From the 2001 batch."
I kept expecting the cleaning auntie to run from the toilet to chastise him properly for man-handling such a priceless work of art while dusting me with her purple feathers.
After struggling out of his vice-like grip,I hung around for a little longer. Upon his annoucement for an urgent need for him to attend more pressing matters, I drifted off towards the teachers' room which was markedly brighter.
Ms. Mariana was my former Chemistry teacher and I found her chatting with her former pupils who like me, visited Hai Sing once in a while. I stood behind them for some time and suddenly they stopped their conversation and moved off with me tailing behind, seemingly dismissing me as an apparation.
In fact, she was so engrossed in catching up and oblivious to my presence, I suspected that should I suddenly blow up, she would wrinkle her nose and ask who farted, arms akimbo.
She finally turned around, thanks in part to my heavy breathing and found me. I half expected her to yelp in terror and scream bloddy murder when she saw that the apparation was indeed a living breathing being.
She smiled instead and bidding goodbye to her two students, turned to me.
" Hello." she said, as if we met only yesterday.
And then we started catching up. She commented on my new found talkativesness which she insisted was a good thing and said that I had gotten thinner while I told her how guys in NS got girlfriends because they thought the 2 days they had with each other wouldn't be spent quarelling.
I thought of counter examples and told her about my friend who went into camp every week bemoaning the fact that his girlfriend was going to "break" with him so often so that the "unusual " thing would be him to come in and tell us of a wonderful weekend spent with his girlfriend.
But I digress.
After chatting for a little longer, Mdm Zaibon ( I keep remembering it as Bonzai for some reason. Must be the hair. ) the band teacher-in-charge came up to her to invite her out for lunch.
"You know Khasrul? His batch one la "
After searching for a match, she finally regconised me as someone who came to help out in the band.
I said goodbye to Ms. Mariana and hoping to find more teachers to talk to, went one round to the HOD room again.
THE STRANGER
Finding none, I was intending on going back when I passed by someone who seemed to remember me.
"DANIEL!"
Remembering faces was one of the most daunting task I had taken and this time her face drew a blank which I suspected registered on my face as well.
"I'm Shevon." Nothing still.
I felt suitably embarrassed since she seemed to remember me so well and tried to wiggle out of the uncomfortable situation by asking her questions.
"Hey. So who are you looking for?" I loved one syllabus greetings.
She said some names which I couldn't recognise and having found someone who could chat with me , accompanied her to look for some of them.
While looking for one of them I sneaked off and took some pictures. Enjoy!
What an interesting means of leaving your mark on the school.
Imagine being 40 and bringing back your kids to the school you tell them,while pointing to one of the many tiles,
" See papa draw one."
Now, I dont want to brag but one of the pond was single-handedly dug by me. OK. Maybe not single-handedly but anyhow, at least I got something to tell my children.
"see Papa help to build one"
I can almost imagine the admiration in their eyes.
After taking a few more pictures, Shevon came out and having seen me with a Digital camera, took out her own film camera and started snapping around.
" My mum don't let me use her Digital Camera la."
"I see."
" These pictures are for my webpage."
" Hey you got MSN?" I asked.
She gave a positive answer and helped me to type my e-mail address in her handphone and her e-mail address in mine.
"how to retrieve your address ah?"
She looked at me as if I had the HIV and then said,
"Your own phone also don't know."
Trying to salvage the situation which was rapidly declining in my favour, I took to my last resort.
"Hey, I go first k?"
"OK.I might be on MSN tonight"
I took off.
It feels as if I'm reading a short novel by the author of Daniel Kang. It'll be nice if you cld complied all your entries into a bk called 'my life-story'. Great entry! =D
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