My alma mater

I heard that the new shopping centre, Pavillion KL (situated at Bukit Bintang area) is now open to the public. Shopper lovers may find the news exciting because there's a new shopping mall and thus more places to shop but I can’t help feeling a bit sad and nostalgic about it because what is now the Pavillion was once a school and its not just any school, it was MY SCHOOL.

Bukit Bintang Girls School. Primary and Secondary. Yep, that was my school. I started from Standard 3 up until a few weeks of Form Six. If the school was still around, I think it should have been about 114 years old. I guessed it must have been the oldest school in KL. The school is now relocated at Taman Shamelin, Cheras and known as Sekolah Sri Bintang Utara. *sigh* Its not the same anymore :(

I remembered all of us, BBGSians were so upset when we heard the school was going to be demolished. This was back in 1993. We made protests but of course they had better reasons. Apparently the school causes traffic jams as it is situated near to shopping areas (at the time it was KL Plaza, Lot 10, Sg. Wang Plaza, Bukit Bintang Plaza). But I think even without the school now, the area is still packed with cars on the road. They also said we might get distracted and sneak into the shopping malls but that can happen to any school kids, even if their school is outside of KL. I remembered during my time, even though we knew our school was near to shopping malls, it wasn’t as if we could easily drop by. We needed permission slips and if you get caught, then its big trouble for you.

The school brings back a lot of memories. We had school traditions and some that I remember are:

• We washed our own toilets.
  -This was during the secondary years. Each class had their own toilet and we take turns washing depending on the duty roster in class. Every Monday we had a school assembly and the Headmistress would announce the Best Class Cleanliness, Best Floral Arrangement and Best Toilet Cleanliness. The class who wins will get to keep the Cleanliness/Floral arrangement trophy for a week. I remembered every time my class won, we would be screaming like crazy as if it were some Grammy Award. Haha..So funny..
  
  
• Inter-class and Inter-school Choral Speaking
  - I loved Choral Speaking. It was a must for each class and we held it during a certain month of the year. My class took it pretty seriously and we always aimed to win. I remember being in the finals and semi-finals during form 1 and form 4. It was especially great when it was our turn to host the Inter-School Competition. Why? Because this was the time when boys (i.e: from Royal Military College and Victoria Institution) would come to our school and being in an all-girls school, we get a tad bit excited. Hehehe…Gatal hormones working laaaaaa…..We also held inter-school drama, choir and cheerleading competitions which was a great way to meet new friends.
  


• English and Bahasa Malaysia Day
  - There were days when we were only allowed to speak English or Bahasa Malaysia. If on an English day, we spoke in Bahasa Malaysia, the prefects would tell us off and say “Speak English, please” and vice versa. I think this was a way to help us practice both languages.

I remember also:

i. Queuing before we entered our class because the prefects would have to check on things like our nails, the way we tied ribbons on our ponytails (the ribbons had to be either black or white and of a certain width), whether we wore our house badge (sports house: either blue, green, yellow, red or purple-and I still don’t know why this was so important) and whether our pockets had buttons on it (so that our wallets won’t fall off!). I remember one time my classmate was so annoyed with all the checking and asked the prefect “Bila nak check gigi pulak?”

ii. The 7/11 nearby where we used to get our Big Gulp and Slurpees especially after any sports practice (after school hours)

iii. Hanging out at McDonalds Bukit Bintang during form 4 and 5 (after school, of course!). My friends and I even did our homework there. We would order fries and 10 sky juices!

iv. My dikir barat practices. I was in the school team. We would practice behind the school hall, school gym and even on the field (not right in the middle but at some corner under the shade of the trees)

v. One particular teacher (when I was in form 3) got so mad because her high heels always got stuck in the cracks/holes of the classroom floor (sekolah lamalah katakan). We were so terrified of her to the point that one classmate actually brought cement/plaster the next day to cover the holes!

vi. The hawkers outside the school compound. I would get junk foods like the 20sen Cadbury chocolate, chickadees and sengkuang

vii. There were a few times when we saw flashers after school while waiting for our bus. Of course this freaked us out and we’d be running to tell our teachers!

Gosh..there are a million things to share!! I miss everything about the school. I miss the teachers and I miss my old friends. I wasn't one of the naughty girls but not exactly a goody two shoes either. And even though I wasn't known as most promising student, I like to think I played a part in building up the school's name. I also believe whatever values I learned from school has helped me become the person I am today. Obviously not someone rich and famous but I think I turned out alrightlah :)

If I stand in front of Pavillion KL now, I know I can still picture my alma mater there. There are too many memories and its not that easy to forget.

Nisi Dominus Frustra. That is the school motto which in Latin means Without God, All is in Vain. I believe all BBGS students’ holds this motto close to their hearts.




Note: I’ve been sneezing since Sunday. Think I might get the sniffles! :(

*Brrrrrrrrrrrr*

I’m shivering…….It's too cold. The office feels like the North Pole (like I’ve been there la to know). It gets like this every time it’s the fasting month. Maybe because we don’t eat, so we don’t have the energy to burn. I thought with all this fat on me, I should be ok but nooooooooooooooo…I’m still feeling collllllddddd….

I have already put on a jacket and wrapped my body with a pashmina. It helps a bit but now my hands are cold. I’m having trouble typing coz my hands are shaking. I feel like putting on gloves now. I can’t even rest my arms on the table because the table is freezing cold tooooooooo…… Rasa macam kat overseas pulak.

Good excuse not to work?

Yeah right. As if I can. Big boss went prowling around the floor earlier. He wasn’t in the office for the past 2 days so I guess he wants to check what we’ve been doing. So, I have to look busy today. Well, I am busy but must look EXTRA busy. Hehe..Don't want him to kacau me. :)

Have a good weekend you all.

The curse of the Facebook

A friend introduced me to Facebook like a few hours ago and now I can't seem to stop 'playing' around with it. I blame you, Miss Saigon Cat!!

Whoever created this thing is one smart person. Hehe..It's pretty useful when we're bored at work and just want to unwind.

But still..I cannot be distracted with this. Boss just gave me something new to do. *groan*. Work or facebook....work or facebook....work or facebook............

Boss, I do it tomorrow, can or not? Its nearly 4pm anyway, time to go home.....Hihihi..

And to think I was totally worried about work a few weeks ago!! Well, I guess I have my moments....

*Phew*

Yep. That’s what I feel at this exact moment. Total relief. No, the assignment has not completely finish but at least the big chunk of it is over. As of 5.15pm yesterday, I finally completed the 2 papers that will be presented to the very, very, very big boss of this company.

This past one month or so has been really hectic. Hard to believe I actually survived through all those feeling of panic. Now I know what it means when people say “what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger”.

I guess I just needed to talk about it. It helps..just to let it all out. It's not gonna solve the problem because I have to go through the situation anyway but at least I don’t have to keep the nervous feeling bottled up anymore. I didn’t realize how stressed I was until it came to a point when I was unable to control my fear and kept saying “Oh My God..Oh My God…Oh My God..”. I didn’t understand why my colleagues looked so relaxed when there were so many things to do.

When I reflect back to what happened, I think being in a new position and a new unit led to unnecessary pressure on myself as I wanted to prove to others that I can do it. I kept comparing myself to my senior colleagues, wanting to be at par or at least close to being at par to them. There was so much to learn and I kept pushing myself, wanting things to be perfect. I wanted to do a good job and was worried that I’d be disappointing my boss. I know now that all this takes time.

Big boss told me the other day that I put too much expectation on myself, tend to overly worry but in the end I always pull through. It’s funny how I never realized that.

I’m not out of the woods yet because there are still other assignments to do. Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I know I would still be overly worried about future assignments but at least now I’ve learned to take things easy. Come to think of it, being overly concerned has a plus point too as I know I will get things done. Anyway, an important note to remember is that when things start to get difficult, I just need to relax, take a deep breath and tell myself “It’s gonna be ok”.

*To all my Muslim friends, hope you have a blessed Ramadhan*

Siti and me...

For some bizzare reason I dreamt of Siti Nurhaliza last night. Weird.

In the dream, it felt as if I was real close to her. I think she was in a rough patch at the time. She was going through rounds of interviews with reporters and all the time she was holding my hand as if needing my support. She kept telling me "Please don't leave me. I need you now".

No. I don't know her personally.

No. I'm not really a big fan.

Weird.

I wish I dreamt of Brad Pitt instead. *sigh*