swiss made. sturdy and in tip-top condition. dark and handsome. i'm an antique clock sitting on an antique table top in a dilapidated antique shop owned by mr. babuuna banana.
You know you were born in the 1980s when..
.1. You grew up watching He-Man, Transformers, Ultraman, Captain Planet, Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, Care Bears, My Little Pony and Smurfs. Not forgetting Aksi Mat Yoyo.
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2. You grew up brushing your teeth in primary school during recess time. You would squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a colored mug.
.3. You know what SBC stands for.
.4. In primary school, you could subscribe to get packet milk. Some days you would get chocolate milk, other days strawberry.
.5. The Chinese horror serial, 迷离夜 was shown on TV.
.6. Your wallet used to be of the velcro type.
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7. It was cool to have pagers in primary school. Your dad's handphone was as large as your waterbottle.
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8. In secondary school, it was cool to carry Outdoor bags, the smaller the better.
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9. SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats were made of wood and the cushion was red. The big red bell gave a loud BEEEP when pressed.
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10. Envelopes were given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's Day.
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11. You've probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who's Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.
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12. You've also probably subscribed to the Bookworm Club. You know who's Pocky, Sam Seng and Simone.
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13. You hated penmanship. Writing lines and caning hands were common.
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14. You were around when they first introduced the MRT (Yio Chu Kang to Toa Payoh). You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to admire the scenery.
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15. You bought tidbits like Mamee that came with a different sticker everytime or Ding Dang that came with a different toy each week.
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16. You carried a lunch box to school but either threw away the food or brought it back home again.
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17. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.
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18. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven were probably the thickest story books you thought you would ever read.
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19. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that served food on plates and used metal cutlery.
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20. The few vulgar words that would come from you was asshole and idiot. The most extreme was 'CHICKEN PIE' because you just couldn't bring yourself to say the Hokkien translation.
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21. Catching, pepsi-cola and zero-point was the 'in' thing, and 'twist' was the magic word.
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22. Your primary school English workbooks were made of some poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.
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23. Some part of your school was always haunted, like a certain toilet or classroom. You would walk fast to avoid them.
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24. CDIS was your best friend.
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25. You printed with noisy dot matrix printers and used computer paper with two rows of holes at the sides.
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26. Waterbottles were slung around your neck and a must everywhere you went.
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27. Boys loved to play soccer with tennis balls in the basketball court.
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28. Science was fun with the Balsam and the Angsana being the most important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtails being the most important fishes.
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29. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Gopal, Sumei, Peihua and John, immortalized in our minds from school textbooks. Not forgetting Mr Wolly and Mr Yakki.
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30. We conducted experiments of our own to get badges for being a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.
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31. Every Children's day and National day you either got pins or pens with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or useless plastic files with 'Happy National Day 1994'.
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32. There was ACES day where you would get a stupid hat and do the Great Singapore Workout.
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33. You wore BM2000, Bata or Pallas shoes.
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34. Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.
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35. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you would find a dry spot in the school to sit and wipe yourself dry. Then you wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.
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36. There would be spelling, dictation and mental sums to do almost everyday. You hated them.
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37. Worksheets were made of rough brown paper of poor quality.
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38. At the first art and craft class each year, you had to make a new art folio using a vanguard sheet.
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39. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $2 or more for pocket money everyday.
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40. You saw Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.
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41. Boys liked catching army ants, fighting spiders, earthworms or tadpoles. Collecting and battling erasers was a favourite pastime.
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42. Class monitors and prefects loved to say, "You talk somemore, I write your name ah!"
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43. There were at least 40 people in one class.
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44. You brought every single book to school, even though there was a timetable, written on the inside cover of your little blue notebook.
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45. Fanciful pencil cases with pencil sharpener, magnifying glass, thermometer, lots of small tiny drawers or trays that pop out at the push of a button were the 'in' thing in primary school.
46. Autograph books were loaded with "Best Wishes", "Forget Me Not", "Friends Forever" and little poems like "Birds fly high, hard to catch. Friends like you, hard to forget".
47. Everyone in class would tremble in fear when someone with a gauze stuck in the mouth came to your class and called out a name to go visit the school dentist.
48. You remember saying this in primary school, "Copycat, kiss the rat. Go home let your mother slap."
49. Boys played a card game that compared aeroplanes, warships and tanks - who had more firepower, speed or weight etc. There were other similar card games.
50. Your favorite actor and actress were Li Nanxing and Zoe Tay. You loved Aiyoyo (Chen Liping) and Fandi Ahmad was your hero.
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Don't these memories bring a tear to your eye?
I was once a kid.. You were once a kid.. We were once kids..
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The dress code was formal.. But I didn't know because Zach didn't know.. So we went there in smart casual.. And why Zach didn't know was because he got the invites from his friend only just before the event.. Anyway, we saw a few "birds of paradise" in the crowd.. And these were guys, not ladies.. Some of the ladies looked like dumplings in their gowns though.. One scrawny guy wore a trenchcoat! WTF.. By the way, the event had a strong nationalist overtone.. Well if you would have noticed, most of the 11 luminaries featured in the event had to make it big elsewhere before returning to Singapore a "national hero".. Some of them still live and work overseas! Ashley Isham for example has the word London incorporated into his logo.. Considering if the word Singapore was incorporated into his logo instead, I wonder what would be its appeal then.. In any case, it was nice to see Varian's dad (Jeremy Monteiro) amongst the 11 luminaries featured along with Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin.. JJ Lin gave a wonderful rendition of "Home".. Somehow, I really do feel proud being Singaporean.. After returning from overseas, you realise that no matter how tiny or insignificant Singapore may be on the world stage, it is still home.. This is the place where all things work.. Patriotic feelings aside, I was really happy to hear Margaret Leng Tan (Zach's mad woman) play on both the Steinway and toy piano! Abigail Sin did a fantastic job on the Steinway too.. Catch the telecast of the event on Channel 5 at 7.30pm on April 19!