Received a very pleasant surprise yesterday from my Friendster account (of all places). One of my best friends Jane, sent a mail to say that she has returned to Sg and asked if I would like to meet up. AIYOH!!! OF COURSE LAR!!!! You know how long we have not seen each other? I think should be at least 8 years already! I quite miss her leh!

Actually, its sad that I've lost contact with most of my Sec Sch good friends...so Jane is one of the lucky few whom I still have means of contacting with. I mentioned its sad cos my Sec Sch days were definitely (not counting uni days lar, cos there wasn't much studying done..haha) my favourite and most memorable ones. Basically due to the fact that:
1) Studies were not particularly that tough and stressful then....unlike JC (my darkest period)
2) There were Home Econs and Arts subjects to enjoy
3) Teachers (at my school) were nice and friendly
4) We moved to a brand new premise at an exclusive Bt Timah address
5) Made some of the best best pals I have
6) Went from the last class (in Sec 1) to the top third class in Sec 4 (Woo hoo!)

The best pals I mentioned in point 5 were basically Jane, Fiona and YJ. All were in the same class as me in Sec 3 and 4, but Jane I met in Sec 2, while YJ was in the same class as me for my whole 4 years in the school. However, it was during the last 2 years that the 4 of us became much closer, mainly cos we sat near to one another then. All 3 of them were exceptional students in my class. YJ was always top in Maths, Fiona was fantastic in English (but hates Chinese) and Jane was good in the Arts (History, Geography, and especially drawing). Me? Was only average in most of the subjects...so also dunno why I became part of this elite clique. Haha.

And the best part, all 3 of them came from extremely well-off families, especially Fiona. Wah sai....the houses they stay in hor....Jane (condo, and mum drives a black Mercedes), YJ(either detached or semi-detached) and Fiona (2-storey bungalow WITH POOL!!!). Beat that ok! But actually, that's the norm in my Sec Sch lar. Meaning, most of my classmates had residential addresses that were relatively short and consisted of only:

House number, street, postal code.

I'm serious! In fact, I was so used to this 'phenomenon' that when I reached JC, I was quite surprised to find that the reverse was true. In my sec sch, there was only a very small minority (including me), who stayed in HDB flats or non-private property. But most fortunately, most of my rich classmates didn't really care who was wealthy or not lar.....so the difference in 'status' didn't really affect me that much then. But I had always loved to hear those tai-tai stories from Fiona...like how her mum forced her to buy this $700 branded dress to wear to our school's Founder's Day Dinner....and how her home's water bill amounted to over $1k per month (becos of the pool lar), etc etc. Quite entertaining...haha. And in those days, only those more wealthy students could afford the $60 per pax tickets to the Founder's Day Dinner (which was perpetually held at the very posh Shangrila Hotel)....which is why I had never once attended it during the 4 years in the school. But ok lar, I also did not particularly yearned to go to the function....go also nothing presentable to wear anyway...how to fight with $700 dress?

But having such friends does have its good points. Firstly, I was very motivated to get the same good results as they had. And it was all friendly competition. Jane was especially very encouraging to me, cos she knew I was not that good in Geography and History. She would exchange useful pointers with me (cos her drawings of the volcanoes and rivers were always so much better), and YJ would compete with me in Maths and Chinese. It was a challenging, but fun 2 years we had together, all 3 of us. Quarrels also have lar, but only very minor ones which were resolved in 1 day type. =)

But the sad thing about it all? We all went to different JCs after graduation (except for Fiona and YJ who went to our affiliated JC) and because they were so rich, all 3 of them went overseas to study after their 'A' Levels. From there, we kind of lost contact with one another, and I currently really have no idea how Fiona and YJ are doing. It's damn sad, isn't it? Now and then, I still 回味 the interesting times we all had together, like when we ran the much hated 2.4km every year, how Fiona and I endured our 'A' Maths holiday remedial lessons and the times Jane and I had so much fun together baking crazy stuffs during Home Econs. Sigh.....its like so far far away from now liao, but I can still remember each and every moment of them.

So anyway, at least I still have Jane. Hopefully she has news of the rest and I'll see where this will lead to. My greatest wish will be that someday, all 4 of us will be able to come together again. That'll be absolutely SWELL!!!