just for that moment

If you are granted a wish to relive an episode in your life again…which phase will that be?

I wanna be a kid again. Definitely. And the more I look at Opi and Isya…the more their stories, the good and the bad…the more I want to relive my childhood again. Anytime from as far as I can remember, till the time I went to boarding school at 13. Somehow I dislike that part of my life – being in boarding school. That’s another story altogether and don’t get me started…

I cherish the memories of Mak waking me up to go to school and reminiscence of the smell of her cooking when I reached home..aahh…gives warmth to my soul! How innocent life was for me back then. The biggest problem seems so small now. Yeah…I used to crack my brains to choose which hairband should I wear that day. Hmm…now Isya is facing the same problem. So I guess its true that your childhood can be relived through the eyes of your own children.

I remember one time when Mak packed us fried meehoon in a plastic bag. Not in a nice container, but just a plastic bag similar to those you have your packed drinks by the roadside type. One for me and one for Jim Bob. That was it…no spoon, no fork…just a plastic bag filled with fried meehoon. I was 8 years old then. I got too embarrassed to eat it so I threw it away. As I was walking to go to the canteen, I saw Jim Bob sitting with his friends on a bench, eating his meehoon with his bare hands! And his friends were eating with him…I could them commenting how good the meehoon was!

I remember running back to the garbage bin, picked up the plastic bag and started eating with my hands. I couldn’t really tell if the meehoon was any good because I was crying through…

I was to experience again that moment…I want to be proud of the effort my Mak put into preparing for us our lunches…

Sometimes when the going gets tough…I wish I’m a child again and I could run back home and sit underneath the study table at the back of the house. Mak used to keep her copies of magazines underneath, so it became my hiding place. I used to sit there for hours and Mak would never worry cause she knows exactly where to find me. I would forget all my woes as I flipped through the pages of beautiful women in those magazines.

There were times when I thought hard enough; I could smell familiar smells of those times. Have you ever encounter that?