Oh Mandy....

My one and only friend from my final years in primary school that has always bothered to keep in touch. The others in my final year basically died off as time passed by without easy access to pagers and handphones. We met because they were closing her school and the students were to move into mine, but before the official move could occur, their school's principal had a heart attack, or something, and died. I got no idea why I remembered that fact but can't recall a thing about what we did during the first year we met; 1992 (Pr. 5). Maybe it's the trauma of having Liu Lau Te as my Chinese language teacher again. The same biatch who made me lose interest in learning Mandarin because she was such an irritating woman, who screeched louder than the noise made when one of our chair legs scratched the ground.

The following year, we were stuck like glue conquering every project, sharing secrets, hopes and dreams, good times and bad.. blah blah.. you get the drift. I remembered going to her house to complete one of our projects and will never forget that it was located within the grounds that also housed the Queenstown Remand Prison. I'm not sure exactly how they got a place there but they definitely weren't law breakers. They were a family that made do with what they had and another thing I will not forget is her father sending me back to my grandmother's place with the whole family, that came up to about 5 people, 6 including me, in their car. Somehow we were still small enough to squeeze in there.

Sadly after our PSLE we were separated to different schools, and separated further when her parents got a new house. Good thing is that we're all still in the western side of Singapore and it was still easy to visit each other. Even during the busy secondary school years, we still managed Dewali and Christmas at each others' place, with a few moments to play catch up when you're a host. Finally one Christmas, she came into the kitchen and told me that she's found the perfect man in her life, with no reaction from me that satisfied her. Honestly I'm not the type to be jumping around in the kitchen for the fear of slipping on the floor, but I was happy for her. I wasn't exactly the type to swoon over an engagement ring and not crazy enough to be shouting "woohoo" at the top of my lungs either. Well, so me and my non-excitement had her whacking me on the shoulder for not reacting more elated. Anyway, she's happy, I was happy for her and we didn't really communicate much for the next few years as we had work and all that crap.

Fast-forward a couple of years and I get a call from her that I've been dreading ever since we left primary school. Not that I wasn't happy she was getting married, but I was dreading the very part about giving the best friend's speech. So she called, she asked and I warned her that I'll try my best but I'll might not make it through without fainting mid-speech. The wedding went great, I had fun, and I hope she did too, although I would've said it was a chore. I think she did really enjoy the part of stuffing my face with the sweet rice that was to bless the unmarried girls to get married quick. The rice isn't working as fast as she wants to though.

Waiting for the call to go shopping for maternity stuff...

Vinnie Makes 3

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