Thursday, January 24, 2013

Five and Almost 10

Little Karen is five months and two weeks old today while Kayrin is 11 days away from having a two-digit age, so Kayrin tells me.
At 5 and a bit months, little Karen has just learned how to flip onto her tummy from her back. She's turning only on her left side so far. No more leaving her on the bed alone.
Kayrin is enjoying being left to sleep alone in her bedroom and discovering that time at school can be more fun than being at home.
How we reminisce about good old school days. I went to five schools in all. But the two that made the biggest impression on me had the motto "Simple in Virtue, Steadfast in Duty."
Some of my best teachers were there. In my primary school of SRK Convent Butterworth, there was the super fierce Ms Law. She made us tremble in fear but she also ensured I came out with straight As in the Standard 5 national exams. Mrs. Wong the librarian allowed us to scramble for books during library hour. She told us stories of her time at missionary boarding school.
In SM Convent Butterworth, I had a bigger host of teachers whose dedication made an imprint till now.
Madam Lee Mee Lin taught English in Secondary 1. She made us complete our essays in class. That made me enjoy writing so much that writing became a career for two decades. I must look her up. As our class teacher, she also started this question and answer time where we could drop questions anonymously into a box. A classmate asked about VD. She answered frankly.
There was Mrs. Thong our Geography teacher. Fierce and all, I later got to know her son and visited their home for years to come.
Mr. Saw, our Form 2 mathematics teacher, taught us the subject in a different way. We understood Maths! During one lesson, he drew circles with chalk on the pavements of school and told us to measure the ratio of the circumference to the diameter. That was our introduction to pi.
Mrs. Michael taught us Geography that year and she'd draw a map of Australia, South America and Africa free hand on the blackboard. She'd make us laugh too. I had many more great teachers and the two best ones I had at home. My parents. They taught others outside our home and they taught me everything from Mandarin to parts of Geography I didn't understand. While I was very sure I didn't want to be a teacher, the ones in my life I must salute and thank. Where'd I be without you.