I woke up early yesterday morning, early enough to dilly-dally through my working-day routine. I sat outside my toilet as my maid was using it. I fell asleep on the stool. My maid came out and nudged me. I stared at her as if I had just awakened from a nightmare.
Speaking of nightmares, I really had one last night. It was a combination of creepy, scary, weird, funny and unrealistic nightmare. Well, I think the last point does not count. Almost ALL dreams are unrealistic. I dream about prostitution. I shall not elaborate further. Things just get more sick. Lets get it straight. I dreamt of it, not i dream of it. I dreamt of it last night. I had not dream of it coming true. This is two VERY different things. So when I woke in shock at around 5am, I did not dare go back to sleep, afraid that the old lecherous man came in and get me. But in the end, I still managed to wander off to unconciousness.
So yesterday, I changed into my uniform, and packed my bag. That day, after school, I would have to take a bus to my grandmother's house to watch the National Parade on television. My father said we might even catch the fireworks.
I slipped into my dirty black shoes and began my journey to Bukit Timah. I was there early. I fiddles with my earpiece and stared into space. There was nothing much to rattle on about work. The place was air-conditioned and full of oily air. I pinned on my name tag and hopped off to the manager's room.
The clock showed 5.20pm, when one of the female managers told me to knock off. I dragged myself back into the kitchen from the fries station. I would like to continue working, especially today when it was a double-pay day. But being in charge of the blazing fries station was not one of my favourites.
I compared the skin colours of both my arms as I dragged myself through the kitchen. One of my crew mates saw and exclaimed over the double cheese burger he was making, "Whoa! Why is one arm so red and the other so pale?"
"It is because I use my right arm to pack the fries under the scorching heat and my left arm practically does nothing. It is just flinging itself around by my thigh helplessly. And it is not pale. It just looks that way when compared to my other tomato-red arm." I replied.
The rest of the day was boring. I went to Bukit Timah Plaza with ZhanYu after work. I wanted to buy a book wrapper but I could not find the one I liked. I then walked ZhanYu to his bus stop, left him there and headed back towards mine. The road was long and hot. Regardless, I reached the bus stop.
At my grandmother's house, my parents had already started watching the parade on television. I only got enthusiastic when they sang songs and recited the pledge. Other than that, I was quiet throughout. My handphone kept me from dozing off.
Right after the parade, they were showing 'Singapore Idol' on channel 5. I switched to that channel, hoping I'd catch that episode. If I did, it would ironically be the very first episode I have ever watched. However, I could not really enjoy it. My mother and my aunt were talking much too LOUD. There was nothing I could clearly hear. I hunched and hid my face between my palms. Oh. I was fed up, but there was nothing I could do. She is my mother afterall.
Nothing much to post about yesterday, except it was our National Day.
-THEND-
Also, based on the true story of Jaslyn :D
JSLYN ♥ENGLISH!
2:45 AM
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Recount #4
Last night I had my handphone back. But somehow, I thought I should not have taken it from my parents' bed. Well, it is over. Things have to go on.
I lay on my bed, staring into the ceiling above me. My pillow vibrated. It was not the first time that night. I lifted myself up using my right elbow and leaned forwards against my pillow. I reached for my handphone behind my pillow. My pillow was leaning 45 degrees against the wall of my bed, so there was space for a soft toy beneath it. My soft toy was a cute handphone holder. Once the handphone vibrates, the soft toy vibrated. Once the softoy vibrates, my pillow vibrated. Once the pillow vribrates, I can feel it against my head.
Texting was part of my night life, at least while my handphone still was with me. But that night, I did not feel like texting. My dad and I had a misunderstanding, and he chased me out of his room. Maybe what I did was wrong, but what he said, was not true! It was far from truth! I tried holing back the tears. The tears that leaked through the crevices of my heart. My chest felt so heavy, I started panting. My vision blurred as I texted my friends. I managed to text them that I was going to sleep, and that the next day was going to be better. They wished me good nights, and my pillow was still for the rest of the night. I tried to sleep, but my pillow was too wet to be comfortable for sleeping. I sighed and sat up in bed. I thought to myself. What should I have done? I hunched forward, resting my elbows on my shins. I stayed cross-legged on my bed for quite some time, I felt the numbness on my feet. It felt as though ants were crawling everywhere on my legs. The place where I sat my elbows on must have tampered with the blood circulation, causing me to feel th numb. That feeling was enjoyable. I was willing to stay at that position to feel that kind of numbness but My back was now aching. Hunching for a very long time makes my back feel sore, as if it had been hunched for a century. I sighed and straightened up. Slowly, the ants crawled away. The place where my elbows were left a red circle of radius around 2cm on each shin. It was alsmo fascinating to watch the red disappear but my eyes were closing. I patted my pillow to see if it was dry yet. So it was. Without hesitation, I dropped and hitted the sack.
I slept all the way throughout the night without any disturbances. I only woke when my dad suddenly punched my wooden door and demanded loudly, "Wake up. Breakfast." His wrath I would not face so early in the morning, so I made an effort to slowly sit up and start to fold my quilt. I turned and glanced at the clock on my table. It was the maid's. Funny when she had her own personal clock and I do not have my own room clock. It said 9.O7am. Great. I stared out, looking for the sun. What a stupid thing to do. Even if I really found the sun hiding behind those large HDB flats, it was just going to sting my eye. I got out of bed and my normal weekend morning starts.
We went out for breakfast at Causeway Point, MacDonald's. Dad should have told me where we were going so that I would not have dressed till so.. Inappropriate. I was thinking that they go to the Marsiling coffee shop to have pratas, I wore a black T-shirt and a white FBT shorts. I felt embarrassed as I realised in the car where we were heading for. What if I met someone I knew? That would bring my confidence level down to the pits! How will they think of me? I was wary of everyone around me, hoping I spot someone I knew before vice versa, and duck out of their sights just in time.
We reached MacDonald's. There, it was crowded. But luckily, we found a seat. I was too lazy to sit, so I followed my mom to order. At the counter, I recognised someone who once worked with me in another MacDonald's outlet. Despite the continuous stares I shot at her, she did not seem to recognise me back. Well..
My dad and I both ate Hotcakes with sausage meal, both with hot tea, and my brother and mum ate ala carte sausage egg McGriddles. I wanted to eat that, but the troublesome breaces stuck onto my teeth were restricting me to what I eat. Pancakes were the ony things that I could have, without pain, from MacDonald's.
After that, we walked over to civic centre, Fairprice. On the way, at the traffic light, I saw Agnes and Sally. I was shocked. Singapore is really small. Of all places ! One lived in Bukit Timah, another lived in Yishun. But this is Woodlands. Seems to me that they liked my territory alot. I dont mind.
I ran up to them and forced myselft inbetween them. They were as shocked as I was before. Agnes was like, "Eh? Oh my god! Jaslyn!" and Sally was like, "Eh?! Jaslyn?" I was amazed by their reactions to my sudden appearance. It was interesting to. I smiled. "Where are you all going?" Sally replied on their behalf,
"We are going over to Civic's MacDonald's to have breakfast. You?" "I just came back from Causeway's Mac!" "Whoa! So where are you all going?" "There, to Fairprice."
I pointed toward the escalator down, leading to the supermarket. Agnes, on my right, nudged me and pointed to the escalator too. "Jaslyn, your parents." I turned. Yeah. They were going down already. I have to catch up. "Okhay, see you." I smiled, waved and disappeared down the escalator.
This morning was rather interesting. The sun was not so hot, but it was bright.
-THEND- Based on the true story of Jaslyn :D
JSLYN ♥ENGLISH!
12:48 AM
Friday, August 7, 2009
Recount #3
Yesterday was tiring. Yes, as Albert said on his blog, on the 7th of August, our months of preparation was finally going to be carried out. it was going to be a fun and tough day. Only the strong will survive. I was exaggerating. Everyone survived. We were a cohort of tough strong metal-made alumni. No worries.
We were tough. We gave our all.
It was in the morning. I got woken up in the morning. I remembered asking my maid the night before to wake me up the next day at 6.15am. I felt a nudge on my stiff shoulders and jumped. The nudge shocked me. Ouch! My neck hurted. I must have slept so uncomfortably that night my neck was in an uncomfortable position. Slowly, I pulled myself up from my bed. Although my neck hurt, I also had to fight to temptation to go back resting my head on the pillow. I will soon fall asleep. That is something I now cannot afford. 'Today is the day,' I thought to myself. With that thought in mind, I reluctantly folded my quilt and got onto my feet. The moment I got up, I stumbled on my steps to reach my table. Head rush, head rush. I had never gotten up onto my feet as fast after I woke up. So this head rush is not going to be something I would experience often. I was glad. My vision cleared awhile later. I went out into the kitchen and stared at the wall clock. I turned and asked my maid, "So what time did you wake me up?"
"6.5O."
I turned again to look at the clock. It said 5.5Oam. I turned once more to look at her, "6.5O ? It's 5.5O now." She glanced at the clock, examined the clock, and looked back to me, smiling. Oh nevermind. In this case, I did not have to rush like what I usually do. That was some help, seriously. I hopped to the kitchen. feeling quite happy. This might be the day I would not be late for school! When I went back to my room to change, I did it quite slowly, still happy. Everything was so slow, so quiet, so peaceful. But I had not enough determination to keep this going for the rest of my life. Sleep was too much for me to sacrifice. I styled my hair and admired it for awhile. Then I took it out and restyled it another way, admired it again for awhile, and took it down again. I did this multiple times my hands were sore. I ran the comb through my hair and finally did a simple pony tail. I had too much time. I skipped around my small room, feeling the tightness of my runoff-coloured black skinny jeans. We were supposed to wear blue jeans for the day's occasion, but the blue jeans I had was too tight, too uncomfortable. It also made my legs look shorter and fatter than they already are. I have shorter limbs than average people have. It was already a disadvantage to my height. It made me look rather big in size, at least to me.
Soon, I was tired of my small room. I decided it was time to go. I grabbed my bag and my pass, pulled on a pair of pink socks and hopped out. I threw my stuffs onto the sofa and skipped to the table. I drank my lio and skipped back to the sofa. I yanked out my pair of blue converse sneakers. Those sneakers had got dirty. Funny it did not bother me it being dirty when I was the one who paid majority of it. It cost $6O plus. My dad said I could have it if I came out with $5O, he would pay the rest, the minority. I dug $5O out of my ang paos and gave it to him. And there, the sneaker was mine.
I struggled to put my feet in. My feet was not big. It was the hard canvas of the sneaker which made it almost impossible to get my feet in there. But I always managed to stand up with the whole of my feet in the sneaker. I strolled to my primary school. I felt so big, and old in the school. Most of the pupils in there were rather small sized, as compared to me. I skipped to the OPs room, to find many alumni waiting outside. I guess we were too early, the room had not yet been opened for us. A great sense of satisfaction ran through me. Not punctual. Early. It made my mood higher.
The programmes strated. We gathered beside the primary sixes at the parade square to have the national anthem sung. We were the loudest, we had to be. We had to spread the enthusiasm to the pupils. That was our job, and it also helped if the pupils were enthusiastic. We would not feel that good if we were to organise an event where poeple attending it looked like zombies.
My team and I organised a game booth for basketball. I saw repeated players. They were so eager to get a prize. I was encouraging them to score, I forgot I sweat easily and forgot about controlling my voice. But, no matter how much I screamed for them, my partner did not seem to think it was too loud. She thought I was just talking to them, with her a few meters radius away. My voice is not that powerful afterall.
The time had come. All the pupils had gone home. Now comes in the guests for our 1Oth anniversary cum national day celebrations. Some of us had to run up and down the stairs, bringing guests to the hall and to the ArtStar respectively. We could not afford anyone to get lost in our school. We had to do headcounts. I was in charge of escorting guests to the hall. At first, only a few guests came. I gathered them in groups of single-digits up the hall, explaining to them the reason they were here, in our school. Then, as if I had been gone for very long, a crowd appeared at the InfoCounter. I had to be quick now. I held up my 'HALL' sign as I shouted the word on the sign. "Those going to the hall please follow me!" I screamed, hoping my voice could be heard among the chattering and high-pitched screams of toddlers. Fortunately, they heard my plead and emerged from the crowded room. I gathered, quite quickly, everyone going to the hall in groupd of more than 2O. It was difficult for me to escort them to the hall as as they walked, they did so at different paces, making them spread out so much. I could not see the end of the trail. I just had to quickly reach the hall, pass them to the usherettes, and quickly guide the scattered guests quickly to the hall so I could run back to the Infocounter to gather another batch of guests.
There were total of four people helping out in this escorting exercise. 2 for hall, another 2 for ArtStar. Parents were going to the hall, while VIPs were going to the ArtStar. I sweat alot that time. It was inevitable. I sweated easily remember? Just a walk to my secondary school drenches my uniform. Later on, another 2 from the usher team came down to help us, one for each destination. It did not help much as they only made two trips and went back up. After awhile, 2of the escorting team went back to the hall to be ushurettes, leaving only me and another girl. Thankfully, the number of people were lesser, compared to before, a few minutes after the event started. I was running up and down the stairs, along the now-very-familiar route. I had always thought I could not manage to remember the exact route to the hall. Then I knew, the worry was unecessary.
The worst was over, when I finally had my dinner at 7pm plus. The people now came in a little, in a very long time. The sky was dimming. Just a few hours to the end of the ceremony. I heaved a sigh of relief as I left the counter. I jogged back to the hall. I was an usherette rightfully. They needed people to escort guests to places and the usherettes were a very big number. As we were the oldest in the team, the usher team leaders sent us three secondary threes down together with one of the leaders. When I reached the hall, the hall was filled with total chaos. People people everywhere ! Children were running around. I went to the nearest usher leader and asked him what I should be doing that time. He told me to go to the canteen below and look for another leader. I did so. UI found him and told him my situation. He told me to rest here as I had been running around all day. I did so again, and fell asleep on one of the very little canteen benches.
It had been a very tough and tiring day indeed. But I had never regret taking part in this. All hail alumni!
-THEND- Based on the true story of Jaslyn :D
JSLYN ♥ENGLISH!
9:34 PM
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Recount #2
So today, our form teacher did not come. I wonder why. It was not so often she would absent herself from school, especially now when it is a crucial time. Just next week is our common test. She cannot just leave us like that. But well, her absence gained us TWO whole free periods. It was more than what we can ask for.
So it was also a normal morning, reaching school drenched and sticky. Every morning was blazing hot to me. I sweat easily. I wished my parents go work early, so that there was at least a chance for me to hitch an air-conditioned ride. But I should wake up. This is reality. My parents will only leave the house earliest 8am.
There was so many homeworks waiting for me to even touch them. I was planning to rush them in class when i suddenly remembered I had history homework two days ago. The teacher for humanities was my form teacher. No one wishes to mess with her. Not doing her homework was just signing death warants. So I thought it would be best, and safe, for me to first complete her homework before doing anything else.
Just after I finished her homework, someone came up to the front of the class and started shouting, " Miss C is not here today. She requests that we use her periods to do our filing and revisions." I dropped my pen. Luckily it was just ball point pen. I would have to buy another pen from the school bookshop if it was the normal gel ink pen I often used. The life of those gel ink pens depended greatly on how you took care of it. One drop, plop! And it is dead. A real money waster for a person like me. I liked to spin pens, although often failing.
I was quite happy, finishing her homework, though. I gained one more tick upon the completion of another homework. I kept a notebook, consisting of ALL my homeworks since the beginning of the term. I thought it would help me in becoming a better organised person, with ALL homeworks done. But I guess, I was wrong. Not completely wrong, but partially wrong. I realised I only did homeworks which I was interested in. I seldom did homeworks I was not interested in. I dont think I was even aware of it. Every tick gave me a sense of satisfaction. The feeling of one less burden. The feeling of one step closer to realising the reason behind the purchase of this small cute notebook.
I did a little bit of class decorations next. I was supposed to have had finished the class decorations a few days ago. I guess I brought it upon myself.
Sighs.
Life.
So we rushed the class decorations. During FT period, we managed to do the sun, the clouds, the rainbow, with the help from several classmates. I was halfway through making the sun when the period is over. All I had to do now is to cut it out. The next period was Maths, and we had a speed test. Great. I did not revise for it. I had totally forgotten about it. Great. The test was on Trigometry. It should be okhay for me as I paid attention to the first few lessons. I flipped my paper over and started reading the questions.
"You are given 2O minutes for these three questions." said Mr R. Three questions, I should be okhay. Just three questions. I will survive. I glanced through the paper. Sure enough, there were only three questions. Three questions with never-ending partial questions. Those with parts a, b, c and so on. Great. Exactly what I needed. I tried the first question. It was not hard. I still survived. Soon, fast enough, I finished the whole paper. Whoo. I did it. I managed to finish it within the given time. So fast I could sleep for another fifteen minutes. I thought I could use this time to cut the sun out. So, that was what I did. I cut the sun out. Mr R, I was sure he saw me. But he did not come stop me. I guess he was just tired of me. I was not his A+ student. I never was, at least in my secondary school life. I cut the sun out. It may look like a sun to me, but, after looking at it at various angles, I figured it looked more like a rambutan than a sun. I giggled. Two tables infront of me, MingFang turned to look at me. I held the sun up, hiding my face behind it. She too burst into laughter. So now, the rambutan sits on the notice board behind our class, behind me. During humanities, I finished filing early. I was organised. I found my papers fast and I filed them in fast. It took me less than twenty minutes, I think. I turned and started chatting.
It was quite a fun day in school, except for the fact that i accidentally spilled some mango tea into JunTong's curry rice, and Arjun not returning my two bucks. Everything went fine and smooth. To me, at least.
-THEND- Based on the true life story of Jaslyn :D
JSLYN ♥ENGLISH!
7:44 AM
Recount #1
I woke up early this morning. Earlier than usual, but still quite late after I was done with my day-dreaming. Dim light was shining through my windows and I wonder, why havent my maid woke me up yet? A minute later, I heard a knock on my wooden door and a silhouette of a head popped out from behind the door. There she was, I thought. I nodded to her, trying to signal to her that I was awake. But I guess she too could not see my face as clear as I could see hers. She tip-toed towards my bed and tapped me so lightly, one would not feel it if she was not aware of it. Just to make her job easier, I jerked myself, making her think that she successfully woke me up. She sighed a relief and tip-toed out, back to the kitchen. I stretched my limbs lazily and yawned. This is like the normal days, when I would wake up in bed, stare at the ceiling for a little while. Then my maid will come in and think that she was the one who woke me up, feeling a sense of satisfaction as she went out of the room.
I put my hands behind my head as it rested on the interlocked fingers. Yawn. It felt so cold in the morning, even with my thick quilts up on till three quarters of my head. But it was just going to get hot later, in the day. Like any other day, I was going to sweat like nothing else mattered. My uncomfortably thick uniform was going to be drenched and sticky as like every morning when I reached school.
I blinked.
Too much light was coming through my windows. Oh no. I'm going to be late, again. It was not going to be any suprise for my form teachers anyway. Eversince the start of this term, I was rarely just punctual for the national anthem. I jumped out of bed and went to my table. I bent down to the sockets and switched off the mosquito repellent and stood up again. I grabbed a comb and ran it through my bush-like hair. So many hairs got caught in the teeth, but i did not care. It did not matter, at least not now. I was late. The clock says 6.59am. If I was not going to be late today, it was going to be more than a miracle. I jogged along the corridor from my room to the kitchen. My bowl of half-boiled egg was there, waiting for me to finish brushing my teeth, to finish admiring the colour of my braces, and to finally stroll back to the dining table to gobble it down my throat.
After i finished half my breakfast-the egg-, I jogged again back along the corridor and into my room. Oh no. I forgot to turn off the fan just now. Well, what is done is done. I swiftly turned and locked th door and took about five long strides to pull down the blinder across the room. My uniform was not that hard to find. Its striking colour had it unabled to hide itself from me. I sighed as i pulled it off the hanger. "I do not want to wear you either, you thick, uncomfortable excuse for a secondary school uniform." I thought aloud. I sighed again as I struggled into the thick material. It was so uncomfortable to raise my arms to get my hair done. The uniform was just so thick, so hard. When is the next time the school is going to be more friendlier to its students and offer us nice, stylish, comfortable and sweat-proof uniforms? I guess that is not going to happen. We are students, afterall. Students must look like students.
I grabbed my bag and dashed out. It was fast and easy to dash out and lay my bag on the sofa in socks. Nice slippery socks. I went back to the dinning table and finished up my breakfast. I just had to drink up my glass of warm milo. I slid back to the sofa, grabbing my bag as I went. I slid into my loose school shoes and I was out the door. My maid was always there to help me open the door. I wondered if she knew I was always late. Nevermind about that. That did not really matter to me now. Not when I had to rush for the lift and to school.
The journey to school was, as usual, long and hot. I was sure noone would be behind me, as I would be the latest to reach school. It has been that case ever since the term started, havent it? The confiscation of my handphone helped partially as I did not slow down to ponder about what to reply. Great. The school's second bell had just gone off.
"Wait, you stop." The security guard demanded when I reached the closed gate, sweating. "Has the anthem already started?" I asked and my question was quickly answered. The anthem was roaring from inside the school compound. Great.
Just one more time I am late, I would be in for it. My form teacher was never the first person you wish to see if you are late. But, there was nothing i could do. I had to see her first thing I step into the class. Hell might break lose, that morning. I just hoped that she would be in a good mood that day. All our lives depended on her mood.
-THEND :D- This was a recount on one of the first few weeks after school reopned. It's true ! :D