More on primary school memories

Now that we (primary school classmates) have passed the awkward 30 years of age, we are able to share each others' achievements and foibles quite frankly and also rather nonchalantly. If someone has done well, for example, made partner in a law firm, the sense of happiness is quite genuine and this is in a way reflective of the age of innocence in which we made acquaintance.

We were all in the same 'A' class for more or less from primary two to primary five. I couldn't remember how we studied then, though I had tuition in english and maths, but we all did pretty ok and ended up in the top class every year. This is nothing to boast about but I reflect that I have learnt some things from being with the obviously smarter than me friends.

For the boys, we were roughly split into three groups, the chinese group, the malays and the brainy ones. Two of the most brainy kids were Xiao Yan and Yasser. According to Yasser, the group had a 'club' and they called it the Sun Dial Palace. The honourable venue for the club was behind erm.. the school canteen and it was such named because Xiao Yan often brought along a piece of rock and read time as you would a sun dial. Xiao Yan laughed it off and said he could not remember such an interesting past.

Yasser is blind in one eye and he would think of the most incredible stories to explain. According to Norman, Yasser said that he became blind in that eye when his FATHER breastfed him (I know..but we were all primary school kids and blur and did not have the benefit of the internet and wikipedia then), some milk dripped on his eye and it got infected. Another witness, Xihua who sat beside Yasser confirmed the story and said that Yasser said that two drops of milk were all it took to blind a person. This so terrified her that she started to have a phobia against milk and argued that this was the reason she stopped growing vertically.

Another fond memory I had of primary school was our quizzes in class. After exams or when we had free time, our teacher split us into two groups and pitted us against each other. Each team would take turns to send someone to post a question and see if the other can answer. Xiaoyan, Yasser and Sophian would often be the guys that would go up to the blackboard and ask questions. I learnt a lot of general knowldege then.

Being in the top class has many benefits. Simply, because the others were so driven and smart, you got pulled along despite being less intelligent.