School gatherings

Two unexpected gatherings took place recently.

I knew from Facebook that my secondary school would be celebrating its 65th anniversary on Saturday, 17 May, and saw that some old friends would be going back to meet and collect souvenirs they ordered. Well, I didn't enjoy my secondary school life much so I just read and no action.

Then maybe a day or two before that, SX texted me over Messenger to ask if I wanted to go back. From there, I realised that I created a WhatsApp group with her and two other friends from Girl Guides back in 2014 but exited in 2022 or 2023. I didn't remember either!

Anyway, she added me back in and four of us arranged to catch up in school. When my fellow Guides call, I'll respond!

Before I go into the visit, let me share my adventure...

I thought I would walk from AMK MRT station but I couldn't find the sheltered walkway - think it was no more due to the construction... The sky was getting greyer so I decided to take the bus.

And then I lost my way *.*

There were signs I was on the wrong bus:

1. For a route the plies a school, there was no students in the queue.
2. Berth signage says AMK Ave 9 - I thought 265 goes to Ave 5? Maybe Ave 5 was enroute.
3. I saw from the screen some 5m from the bus berth while waiting - there were two lines for bus 265; I thought I blur saw wrongly since it was quite far away.
4. When the bus arrived, there were already passengers on the bus though I boarded at the bus interchange.
5. Final straw was when the bus turned right instead of left at the MRT junction. I haven’t been to school for almost 30y but I lived in that neighbourhood for a long time so I knew the general direction was wrong. 

Asked driver and indeed, I was on the wrong 265! He kindly told me to alight, cross the road to take the same bus, and not to alight at the bus interchange. 

Why oh why can’t they have two numbers or label them 265A and 265B??!

Never been so glad to see the school when I finally got there, 20min later than expected!!

SX and JX were at the bus stop when I got there; LS couldn't make it at the last minute. Three of us went in, and stayed there for two hours!

It was Speech Day in the morning followed by carnival and stuff for the anniversary do. So SX actually saw our old principal who left shortly after the Speech Day ended.

Also bumped into many other old friends from Girl Guides and other classes. Quite nice to see one another in school after 30y! Some surprises too, like an ex-colleague and a couple of Girl Guides juniors who recognised me; Auntie was, after all, Company Leader of the 19th Company. 

And of course the teachers! Physics teacher and Sec 2 English teacher - yes, the one who called us back for oral on Saturday so I didn't attend a Girl Guides excursion but she never showed up... But it was nice to see them la. Felt almost like a student again.

Went around to see the classrooms - I don't remember where I was anymore except that I was in a corner room once coz I puked at the corner one day :(

The canteen is smaller now as the sides are now storage areas?? Number of stalls not as many but we know it's hard to get stallholders anyway... Still remember our canteen food last time - very lucky to have many options.

LC sent me pictures of a board with my name on it a few years back when she was at the open house with her children. But I couldn't find it...

It was very hot and we were getting hungry. A group of us left school together but split for lunch. It was like the group who used to eat at Macs, and the group who used to go home for lunch. No prize for guessing which group I'm in!

My fave room in the whole school - our Guides' Den!

We spent many happy hours in the Guides' Den. Probably between school hours and CCA hours as our CCA fell on Friday afternoon. Thank goodness for my CCA, which lit up my secondary school life.

So three of us continued at AMK Hub, chatting about life and children and future for quite a long while. Really so nice to catch up with them again :)

Oh, we passed through a small tunnel behind the MRT station when we were walking from school to town. It used to connect the two sides of the station but one side - the side I remembered - was closed. I had completely forgot about that tunnel linking to the other side or I could have walked to school. But I might still be lost, to be honest, haha!

Yesterday was my primary school class gathering. I was not lost but I was still late. Left Bishan a bit later than expected as I had a tummy ache. Did not expect bus 55 to take such a long time! The journey took only 15min faster than if I had started from HV *.*

Harder to talk more with a big group but it was still nice to see everyone after such a long time. CY and I have of course been meeting up but for the rest, I had not seen some for 30y?! The last time I met them was at HV - it was probably during Yang's maternity leave, and I hopped downstairs for a quick one. 

The highlight got to be Des and KP singing out school song. I'm glad that even though all that remains of our school is just the name - it moved (a little), changed motto, school, uniform - class 6A of 1992 is remains strong!

QW gave me a ride back to HV as she was off to her second do that night. Lucky me, no risk of getting lost! :p

That's a third of our class, not bad!

Actually, I find that I'm no longer used to heading out at night... Sito and I used to go out for date nights but we have been doing day time since he stopped working. If we go out at night, it's usually together and to familiar places. Last night, I was on my own, and the bus passed by so much construction that I felt really lost... Thank goodness for GPS!