2000

I shall resume my reminisce series. On to 2000. Secondary 2. Ah. What a year. Although for some reason I don't really remember as much of this year as I do others, 2000 has probably shaped my character and personality more than most other years. Everything was fine until the end of August, when it just collasped and I first experienced the pain of rejection, which I would of course become more familiar with, and that also contributed to the inherent sensitivity and self conciousness that so clouds my life today. Sounds like such a dramatic year doesn't it?

Hmm...naturally, in the AC context, one of the first things that springs to mind with regards to 2000 was that glorious thing, Counterstrike. CS. As usually is the case, I wasn't one of the pioneers, and only heard of the game because EVERYONE in class (the cool people anyway) was talking about it constantly. The Senior Admin even had the RIDICULOUS policy of BANNING us from going to cybercafes, whether IN uniform or not. HAHAHA! Sounds TERRIBLY communist and so unlike AC doesn't it? WELL, it goes without saying that the ban proved to be as successful as the new Mel B album. We did get CYBERAC out of it though, our VERY OWN cybercafe (YAY). Yeah I don't think I ever patronised the place...although I seem to recall being inside ONCE. My first ever CS map was Siege, and E Zone, that narrow shop with the blue walls, made me feel claustrophobic initially (and I am NOT one for claustrophobia really). Still visit the place every now and then, nearly 6 years on =)

Ok. Wad else. I thought Catherine Cheong, our Science teacher who also happened to teach English, ROCKED. Sure Si-Hoe was the cool rebel and all but she was just such a nice lady who, from what I can remember, was a good enough teacher. Of course, Mohan continued to hover around as our English and Lit teacher. As you may recall, Goretti was rather enthu about the whole "class spirit", "community" and "learning environment" thing. She coerced us into decorating our notice board...you know, with INFORMATIVE and EDUCATIONAL articles and pictures etcetc. Oh boy she got more than she bargained for. Early 2000. Yong Liang innocently pinned up some pictures he had cut out from Life! of the Grammy Awards. You know, pictures of all our dear celebrities in their finest threads. Wait. Grammy Awards. 2000? Get the idea?



JENNIFER LOPEZ in VERSACE. Need I say more? When Mohan saw that picture, she just flipped. "BOYS, this is PORN!" (No Madam, that's not what porn looks like). "What if Mrs Fanny Tan happens to come in and sees that?" (Well knowing Fanny she'd probably have bought it and worn it herself *TERRIBLE MENTAL IMAGE*) Apparently she even told her other classes about our SHAMEFUL behaviour (or so I hear from the 2.5 peeps). Seriously. All the fuss over a simple picture. Demonstrates what a CONTROVERSIAL artist Jennifer is...ok I digress.

Oh yes I will never forget the raid conducted by Karen Liau, Samuel Sim and Azman on our classroom. We had swimming lessons that morning and the guys actually put my underwear outside on the ledge. And during Yong Mee Ying's lesson those 3 just barged into our classroom and conducted their spotcheck. I remember poor Siow being made to stand on the chair for smiling or sth. Exactly what happened is kindda sketchy. My first memory of Karen Liau was during the B Div rugby finals at the Police Acedemy, where she was screaming at us for not cheering and trying to get everyone into the whole school spirit thing. With that memory AND the rather rude raid, my first impression of her was really bad. What a BITCH! Of course over the years Karen Liau proved to be one of the most popular teachers in ACS (I) ever. She had so much style, and was never afraid to make a fool of herself, during teacher's day celebrations for example. A PITY I never had the chance to be taught by her. Would love to have been her Lit student (sorry Seow =p). And yeah I suppose that ACS(I) would be less fun now that she's overseas.

Farlow's art lessons were always rather torturous. He could go on and on and on about some apparently genius drawing or design. I remember how we were all commenting that Paul Ho's submission was horrible and it ended up getting acclaim from Farlow. But I suppose he's a nice man, tho' I never really got to know him. Ho Yee Cheong just got on my nerves when he started pestering us for our PC file. PC lessons under him sucked. And I remember getting punished by Alistair Chew.

Talking about being punished, I'll never forget that encounter with Emily Ong. Hahaha. Jonathan Koh and I were joking about Joseph Yeo and laughing away during her lesson. Emily warned me that she would ask me to leave the classroom if I continued to not pay attention to her lesson. I replied "I'll leave when I'm bored" and that was enough to get me sent out of class. I explained that I was having "personal problems", and she said that wasn't an excuse to be rude or something. But yeah how BITCHY is that?

So yeah. Personal problems. One day after Siow's birthday, my friendship with him basically went through this very strange stage. 23rd August 2000. ONE day after I had given him that oh-so-cute Statue Of Liberty snoopy dog thing that I had purchased from New York ESPECIALLY for him. Or was it the SAME day I gave him his present? Really can't remember. Sigh. Siow and I used to chat on the phone all the time in the afternoons after school. Sometimes for HOURS. I would sit in Mum's room (where there used to be a phone), and we would just chat about all sorts of things. No one else has matched that la. I'm not really a phone person but Siow made it so easy. Anyway on that fateful afternoon we were talking and I just made some remarks about Kenneth Lwi. About how I wouldn't let him usurp my position with Michael or something. All rubbish when I think about it now really. And Siow got like so pissed and proceeded to lecture me (I remember complaining to Michael about it later that day when we were taking a break from tennis outside Casa Bella). Little was I to know that the whole thing would blow up to the extent it did. Siow effectively cut me off. Stopped talking to me. Stopped mixing with me. But at the same time he would still communicate with me now and then? I don't know how to explain it in words la. Anyway yeah that whole thing lasted for the longest time ever and I was so terribly upset. Lost my appetite, became moody, cried like a baby sometimes. You know, to this day, I really don't know EXACTLY why he rejected me the way he did. He rejected my friendship. And it hurt me for so long. I guess I'm used to it by now but that was really the first time and it led to me becomming very paranoid about these type of things and SENSITIVE when it came to friends and all. I still am today of course. Yeah I've been/am going through Jovan, Brian and of course the current one but they'll never hurt as much as Siow's rejection did. The first cut is the deepest indeed. Still I hate the feeling of rejection. And this fourth cut may well be the second deepest actually.

That event basically defined the rest of my 2000. Although we continued to LAN like mad and did watch a whole lot of movies towards the end of the year. I remember almost every Thursday or Friday Siow would force me to call E Zone and book computers for us on Saturday (yes you used to have to CALL in advance hahaha). And then on Saturday after wasting half the day on NPCC, I would proceed down to BTP for CS.

Hmmm. As I said at the start of this post I don't remember as much of 2000 as I should, considering it was such a defining year of my life. Nothing much springs to mind now although I'm sure there were loads more laughs. OH YES Henry kicking Toshi in the balls. That was classic. Toshi was just gaying around with everybody at one point and when he tried to do it to Henry, the brute warned *Australian accent* "Toshi if you do anything to me I'm going to kick you". Toshi ignored the warning and got closer to Henry who proceeded to just lift up one of his massive legs and kick Toshi in the crotch as promised. Toshi grabbbed his balls and fell to the ground. I remember Siow and I LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY to the point where WE collasped on the floor. Poor Toshi got an MC for quite a while because of that.

Let's see. Hmmm. Aiya Siow and I were like so tight in 2000. I mean yeah we hardly keep in contact now and all but I don't think I've been closer to anyone than I was with Siow back in 2000. Which explains why I reacted so strongly to his subsequent rejection (or was it?) of our friendship. Hahaha Henry Tiong just messaged me on MSN. Isn't that JUST SO DAMN COINCIDENTAL. Apparently he's comming down to Singapore at the end of the year. Would be great to see him again.

So yeah that was 2000 for ya. From an ACS (I) perspective of course. The other VIVID memory I have of that year was New York City. And of course watching Britney's "Stronger" on Channel 5 for the first time, which was what really made me the fan I am today. As you can see my life in AC was far from a bed of roses, and I'm glad I haven't written this while looking through rose tinted lenses. The sad part is, I still seem to be (barely)dealing with the same obstacles now, 5 years later. Still rejected. Still confused. Still clueless. How can two people who have quite a bit in common not even manage a friendship?