Marriage
Mother: "Eh. Your cousin getting engaged end of July leh."
Me: "Huh? Why? Accident ar? Why so careless?"
Mother: "No la. Accident your head. She and the BF together very long liao. So get engaged lor."
Me: "Oh....icic.."
Mother: "How? So many of your cousins either married or engaged liao leh. When your turn?"
Me: "Me?? You definitely won't see me getting married within the next 5 years."
Mother: "You sure or not? This kind of thing hard to say one leh."
Me: "Won't marry one la. I will only marry when I have at least a hundred thousand in my bank account."
Mother: "A hundred thousand?? You wait long long la. In that case I don't think you will ever get married liao."
Me: "Can one. When I retire at the age of 60, with my personal savings, insurance savings and CPF, plus minus should have around that amount la."
Mother: "Pls lor. You 60 years old you think got people still want to marry you meh?"
Me: "Have. I go China marry one sweet 18 year old show you."
She almost disowned me on the spot.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I was around the ago of 13 or 14, I had plans to marry at the age of 26. To me, 26 years old looked to be the perfect age for marriage. However, as I grew older, I started to become more practical. How much money can one earn in 26 years?
Then I started to push back the marriage age. When I reached 18, my target was 30 years old. 30 years old should be good enough. By then, I should have saved up a decent amount of money, enough for a wife and perhaps a child or two.
Gradually as I left teenage years and into adulthood, I started to think more about life. The cycle for most people goes like this:
Study hard---> Find a gd job---> Get married---> Have children---> Work even harder for the family
And then before you know it, your whole life has flashed past you and you sat there, wasted, old and useless and thought about what you have done in your whole entire life. You looked up and saw your once beautiful wife, now fat and wrinkled, nagging non-stop at you. Your children whom you have worked so hard for, well, you don't even see much of them any more.
Haha. Ok, I am being very pessimistic here. All right. It's not really that bad. Perhaps seeing your child growing up in front of you is good reward enough. At least you have a purpose in life.
But me being one who simply loves his privacy and fun at the same time, marriage is a huge hassle.
Maybe I will enjoy myself till the age of 40 and then start to even think of marriage and having children. I shared my thought with a friend of mine and he shot back," You not scared one day you go out with your son and other people thought he your grandson ar?"
That never once crossed my mind. Already at the age of 23 and kids are calling me 'Uncle'. What will become of me when I reached 40?
Next week I will book a plane ticket to China and look for my sweet 18 yr old. It will be too late when kids start to address me as 'Ah Gong'.
That Orchard Incident
I was waiting for a friend near Orchard Mrt station when I was approached by an elderly man around the age of 60.
"Ah di ar..you know how to get to Plaza Singapura or not ar?"
Me: "Take train lor. It's just 2 to 3 stops away."
He: "Aiyo, take train for what. Town area very big meh? Take train also expensive leh. We should make full use of our two legs mah."
Me: "Sorry Uncle. I really don't know how to get there by foot."
He: "Wah lau. You youngster leh. I thought you should know the whole town area by the back of your hand. Never mind la. I go ask other people. Ask you also useless." And he just shook his head and walked away.
I hope he gets lost in town.
I Not Stupid Too
I rented Jack Neo's movie I not Stupid Too a couple of days ago. I like Jack Neo's movies because his movies reflects closely to our everyday's life. 'I Not Stupid Too' is a sequel to another of his hit movie 'I Not Stupid' a few years back.
'I Not Stupid Too' is about a smart boy whose talents are not appreciated by his parents. His parents are both successful people in their respective working fields and no matter how well the boy does, it's always not enough for them. Their neligence to the child eventually made him walk the wrong path.
I like the movie not totally because of the story of this boy. What I was drawn to was the backdrop of the movie where the whole class was classified as the 'rotten apples' of the school. They were not given much of a chance and were left to rot and way back in Secondary School, I was such a condemned case as well.
I was made to repeat my Secondary 3 after hardly passing any subjects except for my English and Chinese. Worse was to be followed when I failed again the following year. Failing 2 Sec 3 years was no joking matter. I faced being expelled from the school. In the end, I was to be dropped to the Normal Academic stream to take 'N' levels.
By then, almost all the teachers already knew who I am. I was the failure in their eyes. Any new teachers who came in the class will keep a look-out for me. They will go," so you are Yifan..." and shook his or her head.
I was already well condemned by some teachers even before they started to teach me. I remembered my Geography teacher in my final year when I was taking my 'O' levels. She would find the slightest excuse to chase me out of the class. When she was writing on the whiteboard and the class was noisy, she would just turn around and ask me to get out of the class. When I wanted to borrow a pen from my classmate, she would ask me not to disturb my classmate and ask me to get out. She once barked in my face," I can ensure you! You will never pass your Geography!" I got B3 eventually for my 'O' levels Geography. Not too bad from a Condemned student.
My Chinese teacher was another one. I scored an A2 for my Chinese paper in the mid-year exams. He eyed me suspiciously and asked whether I cheated or not. I remembered replying "Yah. So what?" and walked away. Although I always slept in class during his lessons, my chinese has always been not too bad all along. I was already used to such remarks already.
But of course, not all the teachers are like that. They were some who consistently encouraged me and gave me support. They even asked me never to hesitate to approach them should I have any problems. My principal would also talk to me one-on-one regularly to ensure that I am on the right track.
The best was my parents. They never once hit me nor scolded me for doing badly. My mum would always ask me to try harder and supported me in any way she could but I knew she was very hurt. My dad was equally supportive as well, which made me all the more guilty.
When the 'O' levels results was released, I was the first person in the class to receive my results. I had done pretty well compared to the rest of my peers and my principal and discipline master were already waiting by one side to congraduate me. They had already checked my results before me and knew I had done well. I was touched by that gesture and very grateful for the numerous chances they had given.
I had wanted to give it up altogether when I failed my Sec 3 the 2nd time round. I was very lucky because while I have given up, the ones beside me had not. I was 'pulled back' at the very last moment and for that I am eternally grateful. Thank you for believing I Not Stupid Too.
