The year was 1992, and I had just recently changed schools. I found myself, in 4 Anggerik, the new name for 4 Science 1, in a classroom filled with mostly strangers. I say mostly only because I had 3 friends in that class. First was Serena, another girl from my old school, second was Lim, a guy who I had maths tuition with when I was form 3 and finally Paul, a friend of mine way back in Kindergarten. How did we even recognize each other, I will never know, but we did.

The new school was not easy, as usual, I had the memory of my brother to compete with. He was Head Prefect, First Speaker on the Debate Team, head of the class, Number 1 student, the list went on and on, and teacher I met would always ask me, “So your Joseph’s Brother? Do you guys have a Different Mother? How come you don’t look alike?”. Its sad how people can’t see past skin colour.

Anyhoo, I had one advantage over my brother when it came to making friends in a new school, I spoke Mandarin, and almost instantly that made things easier for me. Another thing that helped me was that my sister’s best friend had a sister who was my classmate. That was quite fun to know, so I went up to her, and said, on the first day of school no less, “Rumor has it your sister and my sister are best friends”, to which she replied “So I have heard”. We were on the 2rd floor and as I looked down I said “I wonder if they would still be friends If I threw you of from here”, jokingly of course. “Their friendship is much deeper than that, though I doubt you would”, she said smiling back, and an instant friend was made.

Ah High school, such memories. One of the funniest memories for me, was that I had a secret admirer. She apparently was very much into me, and had tried several times to get me to notice her without success. On one Saturday night, she decided to dedicate a love song to me on a popular Singapore radio station, hoping that I would hear it, and who knows what would happen. Unfortunately this girl, not so bright, cos she dedicated the song on 93.3 a Mandarin station, which I didn’t even know existed.

The next Monday, I came to school and everybody in my class was whispering and hinting to me how lucky I was to have somebody who loved me. I totally ignored it, till I discovered at recess time, the entire school population had known of this love except for me. Only then did my friend Lim tell me the tale. Ahh…High School.

On this day in History..

• Where the rubber meets the road - 2003
• A poem - 2003
• Cajun Pork and Rice... - 2005
• My Honeybear... - 2005
• Can you feel the cold tonight.. - 2005
• Mongolian Model Murder :- Private Eyes Freed on RM50,000 court bond each - 2006
• Mongolian Model Murder :- Abdul Razak Baginda pleads not guilty - 2006
• Saigon Night Shots - 2007
• Saigon Secrets : Ben Thanh Market - 2007
• Tan Son Nhat Hotel :- A Review - 2007
• Charity Bazaar 2009 - 2009