Memoirs of a kim gek… (Part I)
Made a long-awaited trip back to my secondary school that day, and it felt like I’d never left that place at all. It’s a place where I was the happiest, despite falling ill in Sec 4. It’s a place where people were genuinely nice to each other… come to think of it, might have been a bit surreal. Heh. (Maybe I was just too innocent then…)
SCGS is a place where nuturing and extra-0urricular activities, especially of the artistic/linguistic nature were emphasised over grades. Our teachers and principal never nagged us about the school’s standing or about our grades, but we still did pretty well. :D
I remember spending most of my time doing the following:
1. chit-chatting at assembly area, chit-chatting in the toilet, chit-chatting during break and recess, in class, after school and during lab sessions. I really talked a lot.
2. struggling with weird projects like patterns and numbers, building pop up games, writing biographies of my parents, journals, building bridges, planting spices, feeding fish, building web sites…
3. going off to bubble tea / coffee bean / hang out at taka/wisma/far east after school
4. having band sectionals…
5. designing t-shirts/banners, practising for sing and sync, decorating the classroom, preparing for cultural day…
6. shrieking… (my memory was jolted after Ms Heng told us to take note of the current gals… they do shriek and scream a lot… v excitable)
Anyway, we met Miss Heng, a teacher and principal of SCGS for almost 40 years. She was the one we went back specially to visit, ‘cos she’s retiring end of this year. Sob. Hehe… most of my other friends don’t understand why SC gals have been flocking back to say their goodbyes to her. I suppose that’s ‘cos they never had a principal who really cared for them, who would chit chat with us when she met us ard the school, who’d read the daily announcements and give highly interesting speeches every wk. (I never fell asleep at any one of them you know! And that’s a feat indeed!)
When we met Ms Heng, instantaneously we clammed up and acted like guilty school kids…
Ms Heng: So what are you girls up to now?
SC gal 1: Oh I’m doing policy exec for NS…
SC gal 2: I’m with IDA.
Ms Heng: Ah, so you girls… when you were in sec school, you’d never think of being involved in policy work rite? And IDA… such responsibility… Cannot believe you all were siao siao in the past!
Us: Are you sure we were that crazy?
Ms Heng: Mark my words… you better go see your teachers now, and take a look at the girls, they’re just like you were then!
Later on… while walking along the corridors…
SC girl: Good afternoon mdm’s!
US: (speechless) Er…. Do we look that old?!?!!? (in undertones)
Okay, some of the areas in SCGS, pardon the lousy angles… it’s the HAZE!
Assembly area
Where we spend about 20 min daily sitting on the ground and just talking…
‘Study’ area
This studying area was organised a few years after we left. Really nice and green right? :D
Koi pond
The famous koi pond, been there since the new school was built. One of our teachers even took her wedding photos there! Noted that I couldn’t find the koi we nicknamed ‘Ms Heng’ now…
Choreographing…
This is roughly what we girls spent a significant amount of time doing… Trying to choreograph some sort of dance or play or presentation. SC is big on the arts! The gals here were probably practising their performance for Ms Heng’s farewell concert.
The legendary mee pok and the man behind it
Here you can see the LEGENDARY meepok! Part of our aims in our trip back was to sample this familiar dish again… It hasn’t changed over so many years :) Brings a smile to our faces… The poor mee pok man is so old and kyphotic now…
The daily horrifying jam within the school compound around dismissal time
Everyday during the dismissal time for the primary school kids (especially), we’ve got this massive jam right in the school compound and also along Dunearn Road… haha… all these spoilt chauffered kids…
Btw it’s costs SGD300 to join the alumni, life-long membership. I’ll KIV till when I become an MO. Can’t wait to have little girls, I’m going to send them to SCGS! And like what Sanz said, where would we send our little boys?
Click here to visit the school’s website.
And we have a wiki too!
