Bored Ramblings ... Remembering Past Students

I am really bored. Everyone is abroad, and they all seem to be heading for either Australia or Taiwan this time. I am left stranded here in Singapore. Thought of doing a tour de force of Singapore, but let's leave that for another time. Just want to do nothing and really slack these last weeks of the hols. Yet, I am complaining that I am bored. Quite a paradox, I am. Even blogging does not seem so exciting today, now. Nevermind, I shall just start writing and see where it leads me. What have I been doing these two weeks? Eating.. lots of that .. well, I love food, good food ... in good settings. Meeting people, old boys, outside and online.

Well yes indeed, these few weeks have been quite a walk down memory lane for me, meeting quite a few former students online and chatting bout old times. Interesting ... I seem to be getting really old, because I tend to remember the details of events and people many years ago, than those of just a few days back. In fact, this morning, I was just wrecking my brain trying to recall who it was I had the conversation regarding memory lapses with two days back.

Quite a whirlwind chance meeting of old boys, these few weeks. Met Zheng some time back online, then Hansel - we actually talked bout SDU, my goodness. Hansel is this great debator and violinist, and he's gona do Law at Cambridge, if I remember correctly. Then, at Alvin Tan's wedding, met Jeremy. Hansel, Zheng and Jeremy are all from my first batch of students I encountered when I first started as a trainee teacher; they were in Secondary 2 then. Jeremy and I were reminiscing about all the people from his batch, the 2001 sec 4s .. names like Boss Jing Hao, Jonathan, and their teachers Mrs CMC, Mr See BT, etc. Many of them are not in CH anymore. Wonder how the rest of his batch are doing. Only Joe Lui is online most of the time. Have not heard from Alvin N for some time. But I last met Boon Hua and Vincent at the Band Alumni practices, and Jeremy Chen, and Bertrand who is still equally fantastic at the piano. Bertrand and Vincent - they are extremely gifted in performance.

Boon Hua, Vincent, Hansel, Zheng Yi, Joe, Alvin Neo, Emmanuel Tng, Kai Chen, Victor Hui - these are my first 'O' Level Music students from 2000/2001. We had lessons in the afternoon then, 2 afternoons a week, lasting till like 6pm in the evenings - and they would be seated comfortably with cushions at their tables in that old music room, while I went on and on about the composer or work. We did Mozart 40 as the set work that year, and the day before their Listening paper, Hansel and Zhengyi had jitters and came over to my place for final revisions. I think I showed then the DVD on Mozart's life that day, and the essay question that came out was on his life and contemporaries. It shocked all the schools, because we had not expected such an easy and straightforward question at all. Anyway, Boon Hua went on to be a great student conductor in his jc band, and we got him to conduct our alumni band too. Joe has moved on to Australia, ahd he's now doing the electric/bass guitar, away from the classical violin which he was extremely gifted in. Kai Chen went on to NAFA to do art - he was a special one that year, doing both art and music for 'O' Levels. Hansel and Zheng Yi are picking up their instruments again. See Alvin Neo sometimes when he comes back for visits.

Then there's Eric from 4-8/2000, who dropped by my blog few days back; he's one of the most hardworking student I have ever got, a first class athlete too. He was from my first English graduating class. They are all in university now - time flies - met with him, Calvin, Mark and Han Bin for a meal in June. Oh, and Seetoh Wei Han ... also very hardworking, and basketballer, and his fantastic first paragraph that he memorised ... the other basketball fellow .. Leonard ... and the Three Musketeers. How's John and Timothy now? And Minlun and Min Rui, and Nicholas .. so many of them. I remember that class the best, every one of them, because they are my first EL class. There are also Mervyn L and Chungyi from the other class 3-4 which I had in my first year. Mervyn used to be short, and he has really sprouted up; was at Raffles City some years ago when this tall tanned fellow suddenly called out at me, and it's Mervyn. He actually came back to do relief teaching this year.

My 2002 form class people are now still in NS. Winston, Nick Beh and Joseph are usually online; wonder how Yuan Kai, OJ, Malcom, Vincent etc are. Leslie still comes back every Teacher's Day. Our previous outings were in 2003, at the Istana Park bar (can't remember the name), and in 2004, when Charles came back from abroad. We went to this pool arcade besides Park Mall, and I remember I had this splitting headache, and had to leave them halfway before dinner at Fish and Cos. Then from that batch of band people, Hanyuan and Tze Yee stay in touch very regularly, and I guess we talk about everything under the sun in that aspect.

Also saw people of the 2003 batch by chance this hols. Joel Yap and his friends were at Bishan MRT when I came out of it. I was just looking ahead, and this person was like smiling and waving. I took a double take, then realised it's Joel. He has grown quite a bit, going into NS soon. Then last Sat, while at Orchard MRT going for tea, chanced into Mou Hui. Very confident and well-spoken, he was with his girl friend. He's going into NS too. His is the NS batch for these few months. My music students from that year - Chee Hang, Mark. Joseph, Derrick and the others - got Chee Hang to compose a Band overture for our band to play, will try to get it performed at next year's concert.

2 weeks ago, met Zhengyu at church. Zhengyu was from my EL class from 4-11 last year. Then Elson, Zhengyu's classmate came online yesterday, to invite me for their class chalet. I remembered the triangle and glass window that I used to direct him to, and he recalled how I went after them once when they skipped my EL to play ping pong. He also remembered the dance studio in which I cramped 3 full classes of 120 students to do intensive EL comprehension practice in the lead-up to last year's 'O' Levels. Will be looking forward to seeing all of his class for their bbq on the 20th. Then I can recall Ming Bang and gang from 4-2. Jerrick is now in Shanghai/Suzhou, can never really remember which, and he's online regularly. Louis from 4-10 also came by 2 weeks ago to borrow raincoats for some production. His class was spectacular in English .. they would just read and read .. remember Ben, Chen Ting, Tze Yang, Clement, Sebastian, Jeffery, Shawn and all the others. Reading is good .. they did very well, that class - about 80% Distinctions in EL. Oh, and met Brendan just last Friday at Borders by chance - that's the place to meet people. He was our emcee with Louis for the 1st CH Music Awards back in 2003. Bump into Marcus Sim and Justin Jap quite regularly too. Great singers, both of them. Extremely magnetic quality to Justin's voice, while Marcus's has that worldwise edge in his. Both were in the CH Music Awards last year, with Justin sweeping Best Performer in Vocal Solo and Overall. He did Leave Right Now for the preliminaries, and it was like .. wow...

My EL students from this year are now enjoying their break before JC starts, haha. Last saw all of them at the Grad Nite. Should say that they enjoyed themselves taking photos and chatting away. Nicol just came back from Europe with lots of great photos, Glen is now in Europe. Msned with Zheng Kai and Royston too the other day. Bumped into Jing Yuan and his girlfriend last week at Lido. From 4-11, Wilson Wee and Sng Tiak are regularly online, but usually in busy/away mode. Sze Huan is around once in a while. Just discovered Lan Guan is online, always mistook his msn for someone else. Last week, Toon Hwee smsed me in the middle of a movie I was watching bout the 4-11 chalet bbq on 28th. Looking forward to that too.

Had a chat with Chunyang on msn the other day - he's the one whom I talked bout memory lapses with, and I could not remember that the next day. He's from my first complete 2-year form class in lower secondary, and I just recalled the class play that they put up that year, with him acting as the Gyspy. Daryl just msned me that he acted as the Priest, and they won the Best Play of the year. Chunyang was my Band leader too, so I saw him developed over the 4 years. They're doing very well now. The other band people from his batch are either abroad or in NS now. Shaun and Derrick are now in NS, Marcus, Daryl and the rest going in Jan or April. Met quite a number of Band old boys recently actually, Kwang Han who came back the other day, Andrew for supper sometime last week - he was the one who put the idea of a blog into my head, and Mark and Ketsu for tea and dinner. Meet up with Ketsu quite regularly for dinners; he's a very talented boy in all areas of performance. Mark's my band leader for this year, and he was excellent at motivating and leading the band towards the SYF Gold with Honours. Spoke with Alford two days back bout the Band blog. Melvin just came back from Greece. Everyone's managed to go abroad! Sigh. Sherman online now, asking all of us to support him at the TJ concert tomorrow. Have not seen Daniel Chang for quite a while though. Will be having a bbq/chalet for all the band old boys on 27th .. hope to see them there. I think I am most familiar with all the band people, and I can't list all their names here. Will fill up pages.

The list goes on - each meeting ends up with lots of catching up and discussions about school latest happenings. Quite a good feeling now, reminiscing bout my past students. Can't include all of them in this post. There are just too many. But they are all in mind long term memory. In retrospect, these few weeks have been quite fulfilling afterall. Because I am in Singapore, I have the luxury of time and space to just laze around and catching up with people. This is really quality time of sort, for in term time, we are always rushing, even during overseas holiday.

Well, this time round, I think I am experiencing some quiet quality life. And yes, I don't mind my short term memory lapses, as long as I have an excellent long term memory retention.


Lots of chalets/bbqs/gatherings the next 2 weeks ... almost everyday. Life is getting exciting again.

Note: Thanks to all the mentioned people - I took the liberty of including your names in my ramblings. Apologies also if I have missed you out. I am in quite a dazed mind now....