monkey bars guy

last night out cat dad suddenly asked cat what happened to cat friend....

cat: which one?

cat dad: go kindergarten with you one....

cat: which one? (cat went to 4 kindergartens....)

cat dad: stay (name of area) & go (name of kindergarten) & (cat primary school) one....

cat: which one? (so many went to that kindergarten & cat primary school & stay in that area....)

cat dad: parents divorced one....

cat: which one? (so many with divorced parents who went to that kindergarten & cat primary school & stay in that area....)

cat dad: last time come our house one...

cat: oh....(melbourne cap one....)

monkey bars guy is among those who did not meet last criteria (come to cat house).

more hyperactive than cat + incredible sense of balance + agility. played together almost every recess from K1 until primary 5, minus 1-2 years when cat was in other kindergartens. taught cat how to play monkey bars + hang upside down from them + climb up to sit on top out of angry teachers' reach. also taught cat how to hang upside down from chin-up bars + climb up to sit on top of tallest one out of angry teachers' reach. amazing skill no one managed to learn from him = how to 'run' on e spot on chin-up bars. teachers too amazed to be angry.

monkey bars guy highly intelligent. once 3rd in class. then dad had mistress. parents divorced. cat think teachers biased against monkey bars guy, out to make life miserable for him (happened to many other schoolmates too). kena condemned + blamed for anything & everything. monkey bars guy rebelled, many trips to vice-principal's office. monkey bars guy accused of stealing toothpaste(!?!?!) + etc from teacher in staffroom. school called home. no parent available to come down, only elder sis. in primary 5 monkey bars guy started hanging out with bicycle gang & smoking. cat sometimes saw them in Marine Parade Central.

monkey bars guy ended up in 2 secondary schools. worked hard & walked into principal's office of cat eldest kor's secondary school & demanded to be promoted from normal academic to express stream with his improved results - & got what he asked for. that was when monkey bars guy last met up with cat during visit back to primary school around 1993-4. years later, cat saw monkey bars guy name in papers. arrested & charged in court for 'rioting' after 'pia1 jwee4' at Far East Plaza area. cat dunno outcome/sentence.

earlier this year, cat found monkey bars guy on friendster. embraced religion, life back on track =)

there are many others, & cat can still recall most of their names & interesting things about life that cat has learnt from their lives, even though cat lost touch with most of them when cat went to faraway secondary school. somehow most were not from cat class. anyway cat is grateful & feels very blessed to have honour to know & learn from them. thankew you.

cat sometimes wonder how fate gave cat these friends, & why. what has cat done to deserve so much? cat happy that our paths crossed early in childhood, long before teachers + parents input their adult ways of being judgemental into us. cat learnt a lot from them, more than what cat learnt from teachers of 4 kindergartens + 1 primary school combined. apart from monkey bar stunts, shooting red ant nests with rubberbands & teachers with paper bullets, & fighting off bullies, they taught cat lessons about life that continue to be useful till this day. cat also learnt a lot about how our society condemns people. & that it can be possible to claw back for second, third, fourth, nth chances....if one can dig deep enough within oneself for tremendous reserves of energy it takes & boh3 hiew4 what other people think, one can be survivor.

cat primary school now morphed into brand name school with rich parents paying $$$$$ for addresses within 1km radius. no more non-majority race students = cat wonder if students there still have interesting schoolmates in such a homogenised environment?