Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Sometimes late at night when you think back about this torrid semester like the one I had, you can't help but smile or chuckle. Tough times don't last but tough men do. The thought of seeing out the Measurement and Evaluation module just kept us going even though we did entertain thoughts of postponing the module to Year 3. Now I'm glad we didn't because Year 3 is supposed to be slacker year for the secondary track guys and we shouldn't take advantage of it by pushing all the retarded modules to it.
The days of 7.30am was already so frustating and demanding on us both physically and mentally. There were 2 solutions to it, either you can continue to make noise and tell the whole world how unfair the world was to us or see the "positive" side of it. For me, I took the second route and ended up having a smoother ride for the whole semester. You'll probably be curious to know what can be so happening with having 7.30am lessons right?
I treasure the early breakfast sessions with my usual group of classmates who made the effort to come down to the canteen for a hot meal before attending that 1 hour tutorial/lecture. I'm always in school by 6.45am and the first person I expect to see will be ZM. This friend of mine will always head for the drink stall (the only store that's opened and ready for business) and get his usual cup of coffee or he will be grumpy the whole day. Then Miss Sim will head along and join us in the breakfast and chit chat session. Usually it's just the 3 of us but sometimes, the 2 Boons will head down to join us or the class rep of mine. Seeing the amount of soya sauce he pours into his plate of half-boiled eggs, I worry for his salt content sometimes. There you have it, a nice hearty breakfast for all of us before the dreadful moment arrive - 7.20am and we will start heading towards the computer lab.
A breakfast for me will usually consist of the breakfast set (2 eggs, 1 cup of tea and 1 slice of bread with butter/kaya). Sometimes I will just heck the eggs and replace it with a plate of lor mai kai instead. It came to the point that the drink stall uncle and auntie recognized me as the pe guy who's always in school before 7am on Mondays and Thursday. You don't even have to order when they say see me, just a smile and everything goes according to plan. On Thursday, I like to make myself look forward to the lesson by thinking that after some suffering inside the lab, there's the soccer module later to have fun.
Leaving my house at an obscene timing of 5.50am at dawn to catch the train and buses to reach NIE, u cannot help but notice how empty the roads are. I can even lie down on the road for a good few minutes and have no worries that a car will run me down. The air is cold and misty and sometimes you can have company in the form of the shift workers. These people are either on their way to work or some are just returning home after working the night shift. Sometimes I even give the uncle who delivers newspaper to my house a fright too when I open the door that early to greet him. At the train station or bus interchange, I don't have to worry about getting into the train and getting squeezed like a can of packed sardines. When I reach NIE, you feel as if you owe the whole campus when there's not a single soul around. There are the occasional uncles who made the effort to run around ntu and around the blocks of NIE too. Getting into the toilet to gel my hair so early in the morning can be quite a scary experience too when your mind starts playing tricks on you.
I never used to like eating breakfast until I was in sec 2. After waking up from a your sleep, the last thing you want to do is to chew on some hard bread that refuses to go down your throat. However, I realized that having a hot meal is indeed a good way to start off the day. I seemed to be able to concentrate better and not worry about my stomach making growling noises. In acs(I), I had my "Breakfast Club", went to jjc and ate the mee fern cooked by this ah mah with my classmates too. It's been ages since I last went back and tasted that plate of affordable mee fern. I thought breakfast will never be the same again after leaving the comfort zone of my secondary school. Fate likes to be prove me wrong.
University is a different ball game altogether. Studying in a big campus, it can be hard to spot and find friends for a meal together sometimes. Which is why I'm thankful for a class and the occasional geography or general modules to have a meal with. That's the beauty of life, it doesn't matter where's the location or food you're having. What matters is the company and once you find the right one, you can be sitting at the same spot for hours literally.
I live a simple life and it's something I'm thankful for. There are many others out there who are as fortunate like me.
