Do you remember?

Haven't blogged in the longest time. Must have good material then can blog, right? No! Haha...

For CNY, I wanted to scan some photos to put into this nifty digital photo frame my dad brought home. Somehow, my dad is always bringing home things from different places. I think that's the return you get from playing charity golf games. After looking through old photos, I realise I don't have a lot of photos when I was young. Mum said that was because we were at our poorest then. Once, my brother was sick and my mum had to borrow money from my aunt in order to bring him to the doctor. Being the baby I was, I had no recollection. Am I glad that things are better now.

From the photos, I remembered things from childhood. Mainly that I like this top or that dress. Haha... Vain since young. What to do. But I suspect in some photos, you can also recall your own childhood. Unless, we are from different generations.

I think this was the earliest photo of me. Showing off my muscle of course.

My brother was standing behind me, rather unhappily. The rocking thing I was in was around until my youngest brother was born (mum had two more after me). Do you think it was because things in the past tended to last longer? For instance, older models of Nokia phones were said to be more reliable and did not spoil as easily after being dropped. Those 3210 and 8250 models I think. Now, I'm using a Nokia phone and I don't even know the model number. Hahaha... After some point, you don't bother anymore. So long as it rings and you can SMS, all other functions don't matter much.

The cabinet behind us was our childhood toy. In it, there were many fascinating things. I am not sure where they are now; I think most of them are gone. I remember a chess set made from marble, a set of hawaiian dancing dolls, multiple medals and that's about it. Obviously, you can see there are many more barang barang in it but most were on the upper shelf, which we could not reach. When I had only my elder brother for company, we used to look at the lower shelf, especially at the chess set. We longed to play with it (although we did not know how to play English chess). Dad's command was not to be taken lightly though. He forbade us from touching anything in the cabinet. I hope he still believes it was "fated" that one of the chess pieces broke by itself.

A little older but still as adorable.

These walker things are not quite the same now, are they? Many have in-built toys that actually make sounds, rattle, or play a tune. Back in my time, they merely came with four castors and a seat. If you were lucky, the seat would be cushioned. Kids have it good these days. *sniffs*

My arsenal of toys to throw at my brother.

I saw the red doll at my friend's place some 5 years ago. It was her childhood toy. I am sad to say that I do not have anything left from my childhood. The earliest memorabilia I still possess is most likely something from secondary school. That's not too long ago, no matter what you think. I remember biting on the spotted blue ball and thinking it tasted foul. Rubber is not a favourite flavour of mine.

My birthday! Can drink Vitagen! Yay~

Did your parents give you cold drinks whenever you ask for it? Mine didn't. It was a treat to get iced beverages. For that I am now thankful. They are full of sugar only!

I was in one of my favourite dresses. Many, many layers and the innermost one was actually from an eyelet material. Ain't it sweet? (:

Kindergarten zoo excursion.

I remember the ladies standing at the back. On the left is 郭老师, in the middle is the school's principal, and on the right is Mrs. Morris (who later became the principal). I think my school uniform is the best. No other kindergarten, then or now, has a cuter uniform. The frills on the suspenders are absolute joy.

Do you see yourself in the photo? Are you my long lost classmate? I was in Toa Payoh Methodist Church from 1988 to 1989. Kindergarten one and two only. One of the girls I still see around my block and one of the guys turned out to be my secondary school classmate. It was hilarious actually. There was no love lost between me and this guy. In secondary three, after I was streamed to a pure science class, we became classmates. One morning, he suddenly called me bitch. I think my look made many people wondered why I was in pure science; I didn't look like I could study I suppose. What prompted him to call me bitch I could only guess. Neverthless, I confronted him, asking him what right he had to give me names. He looked shocked when I spoke to him in perfect english. Weirdo!

We became Malays.

I think at this age, I looked like a Malay. In fact, some people even addressed me in Malay. This was taken with my youngest brother, who was very fat. He is the skinniest in the house now. I was wearing yet another one of my favourite dresses. This piece had several squares of cloth sewn onto the bodice. They were actually pockets. My mum warned me against putting my hands into the pockets. In fact, she told me not to put anything into the pockets for they were very thin fabric and likely to go out of shape after carrying any weight. Their numbers soon dwindled from three to two and finally the dress was discarded. ):

This set of sofa also held fond memories. Actually, not so fond memories. The cushion covers had to be stripped and washed every so often. We, the two older children, had to do it. Imagine trying to wrestle the lumps of foam into smaller sizes and using your tiny, tiny fingers to unzip the covers. A real workout. Besides, the covers were made of very scratchy materials. Not good at all. ):