Category: Primary School

During my time in Primary School, one of my favourite ice-creams was this cheap chocolate ice cream that came with 2 ice cream sticks and I suppose it was meant to be shared with a friend. I remember wolfing down the whole thing myself though…

I had to utter that phrase countless times while I serving my duties as a prefect in Primary School. There was a system set up in the school staircases where a line was drawn down the center of each flight of steps and all students were supposed to keep to their left so they will not collide with students coming in the opposite direction.

I had a favourite pair of light blue shorts when I was younger. Don’t think it was very fashionable but I wore it very often. In fact, I think I wore it every time I had to go down to run errands!

When I was walking back home during my Primary School days, I would invariably walk past an array of provision shops that displayed all their tempting wares along the walkway to seduce children into parting with their money. During those days when the weather was hot, I would open the freezer and get a “sng bao” (literally translated from Hokkien as “ice packet”) to enjoy on my journey home.

For those not in the know, a “sng bao” is a nunchuk-shaped plastic tubing containing a sweet frozen liquid that was undoubtedly accountable for countless sugar rushes and tooth decay. Think you should still be able to find it being sold at some places.

Back when I was a wee laddie, I was staying at my grandma’s home for the weekdays as it was closer to school. What I can vividly remember was staying up to catch every episode of those SBC dramas that were broadcasting at Channel 8 at 9.30pm on weekday nights.

Well, it turns out that watching Chinese dramas does not improve your Chinese language skills as I can bear testament to that. Perhaps the learning benefits of the drama could not overpower the TV’s power of turning brains to mush…

Just for remembrance’s sake, the first MASK toy that I ever got — think my mum bought it from Metro — was Jackhammer. It was a simple VENOM black truck with a pop-up turret.

This marked the beginning of my gaming life. I can still recall that fateful day when my mum brought me to Lucky Plaza and bought an Atari 2600. Of course, I had no idea what that device was supposed to do, but once it was set up at home I just couldn’t get my hands off it!

Quite a few cartridges were bought and it was a great source of entertainment. It served my family well until it was called into retirement when we purchased an NES.

In Primary School, I was called on to stand on the stage quite a few times. It was not because of any particular talent in the performing arts, but for my standout talent in being a nuisance in school (to the prefects and teachers)

Me and my classmates liked to play on the bleachers near the school compound, and we often had a game of football using one of those miniature foam soccer balls. In our fits of enthusiasm, we would often kick the ball hard and it would end up stuck on a slope. I would climb up the slope to retrieve the ball (since it was mine), and I would always promptly get caught by any prefects passing by as I was considered to be performing a dangerous act (by climbing a small slope???)

So once I got hauled up, I would be put up on stage as an exhibit to the other students. I thought it was an honour to be recognised to have the balls to retrieve my ball.

In the past, there was this cheap electronics shop called “Cost Plus” that sold all manners of gadgets at cheap prices. There was a branch at Holland Village, but a “mega-shop” located at Scotts Shopping Centre. When I was in Primary School, I loved to read their ads in the papers and occassionally I would spend my hard-earned money on some gadgets (walkie-talkies, key-chain with whistle-activated alarm, etc.)

One fine day, I decided to venture to the Scotts Shopping Centre branch in the morning (I was in the afternoon session) without informing anyone. I took the bus 200 down to Scotts and had a heavenly morning in Scotts surrounded by gadgets.

Satisfied, I took 200 back home, but as it went back by a different route, I panicked and alighted at the Redhill MRT station bus-stop, thinking I was lost and in deep trouble. Thankfully, on the next 200 that arrived, the bus driver was nice enough to tell me that the bus will eventually wind its way to my home’s bus stop. Whew!

Add this to the list of stupid things I did in Primary School. Not sure if its still going on now, but when I was young, there was this drive to drink milk in Primary School. What happened was that we (or rather our parents) would place orders for the milk and some of us would go and collect the milk cartons in a box for distribution.

It happened one day that me and my friends were discussing about the strength of those milk cartons and I decided to run a little experiment. I laid the carton flat on the table and karate-chopped it. Needless to say, there was a strawberry milk explosion as the carton expelled its contents on both ends of the packet. Since I was the “karate-chopper”, I didn’t get much milk on me. The only ones who cried over spilt milk were the people to my left and right…