romantic realignments and reckless remember-ings.

silence, save for the gentle hum of the airconditioning.
dark and rainy, with a dash of tummyaches.

after a long, intense night of dinner, yelling and chats with the grandparents, im home and surfing the web rather aimlessly.

i just stumbled upon juli's spanking new blog and i couldnt help but laugh out loud at one of her recent posts. hilariousness. i mean, who can forget those preciously hopeless IJ days.

so. i can't help it. i gotta do this quiz meself (copyright julesthequeendom):

*drumroll* ..presenting : those wonderful (and woeful) IJ dayzzzz.

1. Who did you hang out with?
gawd. in like sec 1, or at least in the beginning of sec 1, i had hardly any friends and i was miserable. i remember i even ate lunch BY MYSELF in the toilet (!) a couple of times (very Mean Girls, i know) because for some reason, most of my friends from primary school had seemed to move on. during that time though, i hung out with sharlene pereira some (she was a distant cousin anyways) and liz nath. but i don't even think i really got to know them til later!

anyways, later in the year and beyond, i was pretty much with the scavengers every chance i could get. there were 'guest' scavengers, of course, who would come and go -people like jasmine fernandez, s****a f**g, etc., but for the most part, it was the 10 of us. as weird a group as you could get. but we had f u n. in a very weird sorta way.

i think the real *sealing* of the scavenger thing was the halloweeeen 'angels and devils' (ahahaha) party at ping's plastic playground place. OH GAWD. that's when i think i really felt integrated into the group. and despite the lameness of it all (okay, FINE.. at the time, i DID think pink sports bras and board shorts and 'spiky' hair were cool(zzz)), i was, as ping might say, "hairpee". i had found a bunch of people as insane as myself.

actually. there was someone else who was equally insane: anne devon. i wonder what happened to her. she was M A D. i loved her. what a blast. she used to call me lumpy or cheesy or something. it was so funny. ANNE, if you can hear me, YOU WERE THE BESTEST PARTNER.

actually my orange partner shijue was quite an awesome partner too. she used to REMIND me to do my homework and clear my pigsty of a locker etc. etc.

2. What sports did you play?
ahahahahahaha. basketball. i don't even want to talk about it. we hardly ever won and i almost never played. and when i did, i sucked. (note: i actually ran my 2.4 in like 11minutes in sec 4. ahh. the 'good ol days')

3. What kind of car did you drive?
dude. i rode the SCHOOL BUS. with my buddies jo teo, pingers and chen min-yi. and then after school, pingers and i would take a bus or something back home.

4. It's Friday night, where were you?
i honestly can't say. but it would've been very likely that i was either a) at macdonalds' after "BBALL" practice, b) at my grandparents house watching the tube, c) at SHAMPU or HENDRIX or some other pathetically lame club with ping/daph/belle, d) hanging out with my MOM... etc.

5. Were you a party animal?
hahahahaha. no, but i sure THOUGHT i was. i mean, ill never forget that very FIRST time we went to a club. SHAMPU. me, daph and ping. the place was awful and oh-so-tiny. but we were so nervous and the whole 'getting in and dancing and drinking' thing was so appealing. i can't really remember the feeling now but i do know i was all excited and feeling all BADASS. hahahahaha.

speaking of BADASS. we ALSO thought wearing our belts at our knees and carrying our bags at our butts and wearing the PINK SKIRT/BELT in school and wearing HAIRBANDS around our necks and tying our hair in multicoloured hairties were BADASS.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
hurhur. well, i DID write apploooong a letter in sec 1 and i WAS pretty "flirty" (in a filthy, smelly sort of way) during the OBS CAMP in sec 3................... ew. i feel so ashamed.

ahahahahaha.

7. Were you in a band?
sadly, unlike jules the cool one, i had no such band to boast of. ALTHOUGH i DID play the drums for my church youth band.. is that counted?!

8. Were you a nerd?
to be frank, i think ive always secretly been a nerd.
i did pretty poorly in my sec 1 and sec 2 exams and since then, ive just been really quite competitive when it comes to work. s a d, i know.
i mean, i remember i used to secretly "compete" with ping, whose grades were always around the same as mine and how i was really disappointed when she came in first in class and i was third. and how i was so miffed when jess got higher points than me in lit! hahahaha. it sounds so stupid and frivolous now, but i guess that's where all my nerdjuice went -secret competitiveness with my smart buddies.
but in sooo many ways, its proven to be a real blessing, cos im still really competitive but healthily so, i think. and anyways im kinda proud to be a nerd now. hurhur.

9. Did you get suspended/ expelled?
no, but i DID get a .. sorta .. 'in-house suspension' thing where i sat in front of the office with NINA. she was really scary. she introduced me to eyebrow razors.
weird.

10. What were the hottest songs among your school mates?
oh my. well, yea we were commercial music-whores. so we liked shit like sum 41 (or at least mori did) and eminem and all other forms of hip-hop.. and of course, we liked the occasional poppy swoony number that would top the charts et cetera . i also harboured a secret love for groups like korn, limp bizkit, marilyn manson and metallica (i thought i was cool) but in my defence, i also listened to nirvana (that's when my fascination began and it's never let up) and DAMIEN RICE in my secondary school days, so that can't be too bad.

11. Who were your fav teachers?
hmm. i really liked ms shanti, my lit teacher, though everyone hated her for some weird reason. i liked jo teo a lot. she was firm but hilarious. she only taught me for a short period but there was just something about her. something very warm about her. mrs alex was awesome too. she was so much fun. and she always used to make fun of poor english-speakers. it was just too great. and mag low too. she was a bit eccentric at times with her perfectly coiffered bangs and her pristine white dresses with matching white stacked heels and her bright crimson lips. and her siiiinging and her perfect english. but again, she was really sweet and good at what she taught. she was often so stern but when she let her guard down and smiled a bit, she looked real purty.

12. Where did you sit during lunch?
anywhere really.

13. What was your school's full name?
Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (Toa Payoh) Secondary.

14. School mascot?
...............mr peewee? hahahaha. i dont know how i just thought of that. WAS THAT HIS NAME BY THE WAY, MR PEEWEE? i doubt it.. right? oh and HE was a good teacher. funny.

15. Did you go to prom?
yea. i CANNOT believe i thought i looked NICE in that HIDEOUS outfit i wore.. sigh. sad state of affairs. although, going to nu asia bar with belle after the awful thing was really nice.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
yea. i have to say.. sec 4 was really one of the best years ive ever had. i do miss it. life was superbly and immaculately simple.

17. What do you remember most about graduation?
...honestly? nothing. was there an actual graduation ceremony? i dont remember..!

18. What was your fav class?
ms shanti's lit class and mrs alex's english class. terrific.
oh and tan bee lay's physics lessons. gawd. how that woman ever became a teacher ill never know. it was funny just trying to write down all the grammatical/pronunciation etc. mistakes she made per class. RAREFACTION.. CLASS HOW TO PRONOUNCE THIS AH?

20. Which was the most memorable place in your school?
i dont know, maybe that primary school playground? it was rumoured to be haunted etc.. and when i was in primary school, i used to go there and pretend the sand was quicksand and that i was sinking... hurhur. and THAT'S the site of the infamous juli-jess-me talk where the "rock", "emotionless" jules .. crumbled. hurhurhurhur.

21. Where did you go most for lunch?
canteen. back in the days when i ate meat, i lurrrrved the first stall's (indian stall i think) mutton thingy with rice. y u m.

22. Have you gained weight since then?
difficult question to answer.
if you're talking about sec 1, when i looked like a BABY WHALE with a DOUBLE CHIN because i used to eat like 4 potatoes (fried as chips and doused in butter and served with a smothering of cheese) for BREAKFAST every morning... then yes, i have.
but if you're talking about the sec 3-early sec 4 days when i was going through my emotional binge/purge eating episodes and my i-will-only-eat-one-slice-of-watermelon-and-raw-nuts diet, then erm sadly no, i am much fatter. : )

23. What did you do after graduation?
lazed around, i reckon. i dont remember.

24. Who was your form teacher?
errrr. ms LER? that very small, very white chinese teacher.. and mr ng. mr hamburglar. i am going to refrain from making fun of him here cos honestly, he's really nice. he's just kinda .. oily?

25. So, i didn't like the last question, so i've replaced it with my own... Last thoughts?
just a few remember-ings: the very strange halloween parties at both ping's place and mine (hmm, questionable we were) -i remember juli and mabel coming and they were in tennis attire, and they claimed they were "zombie tennis players".. before whipping out their osama and ____ masks (i don't remember who the other dude was);
bursting into giggles everytime we walk past tan bee lay cos someone will start singing 'murder on the dance floor';
having to remove the damn eyelashes from the damn sheep's eye i was dissecting;
ping and i deciding when and how to leave the "STAR" (hahahahahahahahahahahah).. i will say nothing more;
musings on where and how mr tan's penis could exist in those amazingly tight pants;
the endless letters and postcards etc. that we'd toil over to say the DUMBEST things;
ping and my first and last "fight", duked out on the steps;
WENDYYYYYY!!!!! (and her love for ping);
guessing whether or not mag low would wear the white dress on wednesday or thursday;
ogling at "HOT" butches;

(continued)

mr raymond "yo-yo-yo"- oh how he hated us. and oh how mag low hated him;
yes, juli's horrible "fall" down the stairs while we haphazardly whizzed down the steps trying to make it on time for assembly AND THEN butchy favorite jaq yip's expression when told that jules couldnt play the upcoming tennis match (oh the horror);
my talks with ping about the growth of the "seed" (hardeehar, i was quite the 'mature' one);
that awful "amazing race"-esque game we played and then jules and min (?) and i witnessing the gross sight of an old man jacking off in the middle of boat quay in the middle of the afternoon (REMEMBER, REMEMBER!);
hearing about the paedophile-like love for LINCOLN (? may be completely wrong here) that tennis kid by mabes and pingers.. and mabel's love for the MGS coach...;
whats-her-face eugenia lee-tan (was that her name.. anyways that awfully-coiffered social studies teacher) who made me cry after calling me immature and etc.;
NEOPRINTS (the days before the photo whoredom of digital cameras);
ashton drawing worms on my desk (cos i was "wormie" for some reason) and me drawing squids on hers (cos she was.. well, "squid");
MY HORRIBLE YOUTH DAY OUTFIT IN SEC 1.. say it together now.. OH MY GAWD.;
teo peng suan slapping my ass and telling me to walk faster around the track during those "morning walks";
trying to "hide" my minute skirt (i can't believe my uniforms were so short.. shameless);
acting "cool" in front of the juniors;
my fascination with van chung's nose piercing;
my horrible 400m sports day race (i was a miserable last, while the trackers like amanda choo etc. whizzed quickly ahead);
van q**y's declaration that she couldnt wear spagetti straps cos she was too "pretty";
van l*m bawling before and after exam papers were released (even tho she always got all As or something stupid);
bio lab and its horrible jars of horrible things (and the many myths surrounding "the foetus");
and many other things that im sure will hit me at a later date : /

:) i heart chij.