A DIFFERENT COFFEE, IN THE SAME PLACE

a sms text received from my former teacher on Teacher's Day 2005 :" Hi kinonn, i have left teaching in BVPS a few months ago, i have now started my own business career, Please HELP me tell the rest of the 6B class of 98 and all the best to you guys".

i read and re-read the whole message a few times, maybe up to the 5th...just trying to make some sense out of it.

Every Teacher's Day since i graduated in 98, me and my classmates of 6B always went back old school to meet our teachers...especially when we have Mr Chiang
He was our form teacher who taught us math, science and PE.
He was a friendly, calm, tolerant, merciful and caring person
He was the main reason why we decide to visit the school every teacher's day

But now, he has left teaching...
i am totally supportive of him in his decision, but find a little bit heart-pain, to have ONE less REASON to motivate me to go back BVPS

when i told the rest of the class still in touch about this matter, every one seems to be in disbelief.

the last time we went back as a group was in 2004. There were hongwei, kian teck, keng yang, wee kit, bingcong and 2 other guys( forgive me for being forgetful, i think still got some more people) from our class. We met each other in the canteen and had lunch there. I ordered a plate of chilli potato cubes from the malay store as i had did so in the past. The chilli is still as biting hot as before, but... i now could take my own sweet time, don't have to finish swallow everything quickly and then run out to the concourse to play police-and-thief with them or rush to grab a Young Generation magazine from the bookstore... The canteen had undergone renovations some time back, the lighting is now brighter and looks more hygienic than before. I decide to buy something from the drinks store to put out the chilli fire. I found myself queuing up, there are about 3 BVPS boys already infront of me.

I digged my hands into my pockets to search for coins, and as i did, i suddenly saw myself queuing up in a queue years ago. I was in maybe primary 1 or 2 wearing my old blue shirt+dark blue pants uniforms, and was struggling hard to find the right amount of coins for that 40 cent bowl of fishball noodle.I only had 30cents in my outstretched hand to give the vendor auntie. It was already my turn before i remember preparing the money first. The queue behind me became longer, the surrounding turns darker. i became lost and nervous, and appear even smaller and vulnerable. The big boys from primary 5 or 6 seems to be getting impatient behind. Mum drops 40 cents every morning in my pocket before i leave for school...where did that 10cent coin went? Did i dropped it in class or on the way to school..will i go hungry today..?

We went into the office after getting permission to look for Mr chiang. He was at his desk, and when he saw us, he smiled and waved at us. Then we started gathering around his work's space and wish him a happy Teacher's Day. But due to the constraint space in a office, he decide to bring us around the school, to our present new 6B classroom that he is now in-charge of and the empty recreation space at the corridor. We updated each other on latest news, career prospects, and reminisced about the past.
As i strolled along the pathway linking the A block from the classrooms B block, i noticed the old concourse had already been converted to a basketball court. There was where the me and the boys in my class run around and played catching. Once a while we will receive challenge from those 'act' clever boys from Class A for a game of soccer. i think we draw most of the time. And that was where KY splitted his pants while doing a standing-broad jump and we had boring Physical Workout every tuesday and thursday...

...in the end i felt a metallic touch in the pocket, and retrieved the 10 cents i was short of earlier on and passed to the vendor. Can expect how people get so careless and panicky when in time-challenged scenario.I should have known i have found the coin earlier. i exhaled a sigh of relief and carried my food to my class table. Someone asked , " what happen, WHY take so long"

perhaps it should not be about WHY we should FIND a REASON TO GO BACK bvps all these years on Teacher's Day ,but WHY do we let things blocking us FROM GOING back ?

In Teacher's day 2005, i was the only one in my class and my batch who went back myself.
Suddenly i felt terribly lost, no one to guide me, no one to welcome me back, everything feels so unfamiliar...i felt really detached, exiled and forgotten..., although the buildng, structure, and place remains alike as in the past in physical term though...

..but the people who had given meaning and memories to me and the place is long gone...

FROM BREWING COFFEE TO TOA PAYOH SWIMMING COMPLEX

PART ONE

BREWING COFFEE

my mom send me to learn swimming when i was in Kindergarden year One. That time with me in the swimming class was my elder cousin and 2 distant relative. Our instructor was from China, and he was the one who pushed my head in the water for what seems like minutes. He told my worried mum that if i can't get over the fear of water at this age, it will be harder for me to overcome it in later years..a few days later there was news that he was deported back to china as his passport has expired

In primary school i signed up for the swimming CCA. There is swimming lesson every tuesday and thursday at the bukit batok swimming complex. I was in Bukit View Primary school, that time was when my uniform consist of blue shirt and dark blue pants, now the uniform has been changed, along with the removal of the old concourse where i grow up with my budding classmate KengYang and Hongwei...things change but memories stays...

I was ranked the second in my batch for 2 years. The "ruling" party was a girl from class 2A..(i was from 2B)..no matter where and when she always beats me to the ending point first.

Then came when the school start selecting people to go the inter-school swimming competition at toa payoh swimming complex. Both of us were selected to go for the 50 m breaststroke. I was so excited when the time come close to the unforgetable thursday...

PART TWO

TOA PAYOH

On that morning i reported to my swimming in-charge teacher, she was a malay woman in her late 20s and was also my form teacher. Bad news she said was that she, the girl from class 2A reported sick the day before and decide to withdraw from the competition...

The other person from my school was a boy from primary 4, he was to go for the Freestyle match. Both of us didn't talk much in the taxi on the way there, cause all i can hear is my teacher encouragement.

"Detail" by "detail" guys as young as me move up the seats closer and closer to the pool, and group by group they dived into the water. The "chom" and "splash" sound signal the beginning of screamings and whistles as schools shout for their teams...i really wonder whether you can hear anything when you are in the water, when all you Want to think about is touching the end-point and seeing how well you have done. My primary 4 senior swim first and end up last second in that detail line-up. Not bad he is quite close to the 6th guy.

Sitting at the seat just behind the diving point, one "auntie" behind me was incessantly shouting her boy's name who was in my lane. At that moment i caught a glimpse of my parents sitting beside my teacher and that freestroke guy, waving at me..

Already a few boys has been disqualified and marked because they jumped in before the whistle was even blowed. To most of us, standing upon the diving point and staring across the distance of the pool to the end point, the heart beat is just killing.

I dived into the pool and found myself leaving the surface and going deeper..(i didn't receive enough training for my diving)..and when i come out of the surface...shit..the 2 guys beside my lane already about 5 m ahead of me...what has happened?

I kicked hard and pulled back with more effort than my usual training...the crowd is still making much noises and already i am rather out of breath. About 10 m before i reach, the people in my line-up are already getting out of the pool and the first 2 person has already made their way to the reporting station and drying themselves...haha what to say.. I was still panting and struggling in the water..close to the end and not yet, just a few more strokes..

i stayed in the swimming CCA till the end of my primary school years, my school never send anyone to competition anymore i think. And our instructors there changed a few times...

A few months back when i took the initiative to drag my lazy bones to BB swimming complex, i spotted my former instructor, the guys who trained me and the 2A class girl. Besides having a lot more white hair and wrinkles on the face, he was still as before, the man who had made a SIMPLE selection process and trained us, BUT TO ME , it was more than just a simple experience, it was A UNFORGETTABLE AND REWARDABLE CHANCE, to stand facing the pool, when all I have in mind, was myself, the pool,people waiting for me at the end-point, who are always there to pick me up, and a climax in my swimming diary...Thank you

Why u should NOT "drink" espresso

on my first trip to Starbucks months ago, i ordered a cup of doppio espresso.
for the benefit of some who may not have drank it before or even heard of it, the drink refers to
a double shot of strong black coffee made by forcing steam through the ground coffee beans.
i place it gently on a table, cause it looks so pathetically little that i don't wish to waste any of it due to overspilling.
i brought it slowly towards my face, with the rim of the cup almost pressing above my upper lips, slowly i inhale the aroma from this drink that is now held on with my right index finger
hanging on to the handle and 2 of my left hand's fingers to balance it.

THIS WAS A SMELL I NEVER HAD BEFORE

9 years since i got my first sip of a cup of 3-in-1 coffee which my mum left accidentally
on the table.. (in that same year i tried also my first taste of beer stout..yurks..from my grandfather's unattended opened beer can...i think it's tiger)...i finally found a new chapter, an identity, and a purpose to share my "dance with coffee" experience.

PS: most discovery of the centuries are made when people do things different from others, especially when conventional thinking is against it, or when the law or rules of game seems to disapprove of it..such as drinking from people's unattended drinks..side track a little.. when the Wright brothers wanted to fly, the most popular judgement from the leading educators and leaders of that time are that man cannot fly in that generation, that it will take another thousands of years to do it..and Dr Alexander Graham Bell was brought to the police by his friends when he said he could use wire to communicate. His friends thought he had lost his mind..

the aroma is some what refreshing but bitter, within that bitterness is a whole new range of stimulants, it's hard to translate that feeling into words, and kind of elusive but obtainable and u should be able to register and remember it in yr taste bud for quite some time.
BUT by the 4th time i spend "drinking" espresso with my nose, each sniff took about 5 seconds and with rest of the minute registering it in my heart and mind, it turns cold and now becomes
dead and sloppy. So in the end when i started drinking it ,it's already dry cold..

THE GREATEST GAIN from a simple coffee shouldn't be limited to just warming our stomach or letting it be a companion for the breakfast, there is more to it. You are allowed to FEEL THE COFFEE THROUGH YOUR HEART AND TONGUE, attaching it to positive emotions, to rediscover the roots of a simple life that we have always been living but has been frequently detached due to our work,opinions, and what was expected of us, and to relate it as an identity of goodness and blessing ,that we are still around in this colourful world to enjoy this cup of coffee, be it espresso or 3-in-1 coffee.

We don't have this luxury of drinking every cup of coffee by sniffing and "feeling it in the heart" every single day. most people just store up 3-in-1 coffee packs in their kitchen and dinner table and brew a simple cup before they leave for work early in the morning. IT'S fast, INSTANT but out-of-touch, especially when you are rushing for time and just glurp glurp glurp drink it...

the only people who have the time to do what i did are mostly foreigners or local high-paying super-white collared expatriates and individuals,writers and business owner wearing hawaiian t-shirts or suits from Gucci, Armani and Guess and THEN you have the old ah-peks and grannies in 3/4 pants, simple t-shirts and slippers on the floor while their foot on the seats, or aunties just returning from the market and gathering with neighbouring housewives...

...the first group can be spotted with a copy of BUSINESS TIMES or WALL STREET JOURNAL on their table top, near to the window seat of internationally branded cafes or new
upcoming popular local cafes.A single cup of mocha would have cost up to S$4++ , also the music played in the background is mostly selected to match the ambience and identity of the shop.

The second group feels more comfortable in neighbourhood hawker centre and kopitiam, with fans blowing instead of air-cons and with stray cats pacing around your seats. A yuan yang here cost roughly about 70 cents, and mostly the music you can hear is from fm station like 95.8fm.

the choice of coffee is also different

in cafes there're mocha, cappucino, espresso, caffe latte, cafe americano, vanilla latte....with some side choice of tea.

in kopitiam you can find yuan yang,yuan yang siu dai, chum si kosong, kopi-O, kopi si...mostly its just about adding sugar,tea or milk to it that makes the difference..

ESPRESSO VS YUAN YANG
which is better?


(i don't mean to generalize or degrade any body, nor putting judgement and comparing people, cause my main aim in this blog is to educate, alert and increase awarenesss to the culture and good of drinking coffee and also a few chapters regarding myself, so please don't take some words too literally or seriously okay?)

i apologise should my language, opinion and incidents reporting goes against your beliefs and practices, but don't you think it is the difference in people that makes the world such a beautiful place, that rainbow is nice and hard to come by because it's formed up by different colours?