My Memories of Victoria School - Chapter 1

THE NEW DAWN

On 2 January 1996, I began a new chapter of my life. For the first time in my academic career, I would not have a female classmate. Perhaps, the only consolation (well, not so much) was that my form teacher was a nice Indian lady who went by the name Amuda. She was to change her name to Mrs Bala a few years later.

Settling down was no easy feat. Not when you had a classmate whose hobby was, and still is, to sleep, eat and shit. Luckily for us, the school arranged an orientation camp for us, and that forced us to make friends with one another at a faster pace.

By the end of the orientation camp, everyone was tired, but we were also glad that we have made more friends in the process. And it certainly seemed to me that my mum did not make the wrong choice in forcing me to select VS as my 2nd choice (for some reasons that were never explained to me, I was not given my first choice, Anderson Secondary School, by MOE).

MY MATH TEACHER

My math teacher in Secondary 1 was Ms Tan Geok Choo. Somehow, she finds it a challenge to pronounce the word 'axis' in English. She also selected pink as the color for our Math file and forced all of us to purchase a 'Towkay" notebook. She was strict with us, but we always found ways to make fun of her behind her back. This was done to make ourselves fee better during her torturing lessons. However, I have to say she is a fantastic math teacher. I will talk more of the rest of the teachers later.

BEST (BUS) BUDDY

"Eh, you take bus 66 at the Bendermeer bus stop right?" An enthusiastic voice asked.

"Yes." I replied nonchalantly.

"Later we can take together." The enthusiastic voiced said.

The guy who asked the question was Benedict. He was (somehow) elected as our class monitor and honestly, I did not vote for him. My closest friend till then was Terry Chia. However, due to geographical reasons, he did not take the same bus as I did. Hence, our friendship did not flourish.

The daily ritual (for the next two years) would involve walking past the Indian grocery store, the badminton apparel store, and the video rental shop. I would stop by the mama shop (operated by a gentle giant) to make a call to my mum to assure her that I was safe and sound. Bus rides were more enjoyable then. Perhaps it was the company.

To be continued...