Jenny Kwek's lessons are so interesting I would only look forward for more to come.
A wise woman with 40 over years of experience, never fails to perk us up with her wit and laughter.
A grandmother who would not stop sharing her love for children and pampering her grandchildren, makes me long for a grandmother again.

We did PLAY for last night's lecture.
We were asked to travel back to our childhood days, visualise the kind of toys we played with.
Being a daydreamer, I was reminiscing with estactic happiness written on my face.

Gong-gong & Po-po used to live among a few dwellings in Chestnut Drive.
The location was a quiet hamlet and I remember going there every Sunday with my parents and my brother.
We would take bus 74 and 171, alight at Bukit Timah Road, then walk along the long stretch of road into Chestnut Drive.
The road seemed never-ending and I always kept myself entertained by balancing myself while walking on the irregular pavement.
A sandy drive-through marked the start of Mahjong Day for the 2nd Generation adults & Play Time for my generation.
Potted plants and the slope where the uncles' cars are parked greeted us every Sunday.
Uncle Larry's Arowana Fish in the living room.
Gong-gong had his own chair, not sure whether if it was a rocking one.
He would be either sitting on his rocking chair or tending to his orchids.
Po-po would be wrapping her cigarettes and tending to her birds.
The kitchen cabinets were dark brown with either glass doors or green netting.

The girls would play with:
Paper dolls (Dolls, clothes and accessories made out of paper and secured by folding the edges down, dressing the dolls up & role-playing)
Barbie Dolls (Aunt Moi used to sew clothes for our Barbies, all of them with the signature floral prints and decorative finish created with the pinking shears)
Care bears (Which were cuter then , with various symbols on their bulgy tummies that illustrate their personalities. The remake version shows a flatter tummy=less cuter)
My Little Pony
Polly Pocket

The boys would play with G.I. Joe, Transformers, Ultraman, toy soldiers, etc and start killing our dolls when we played together.
Can't really recall what other toys the boys played with, I wasn't into their toys then.

Common games that we played were:
Kuti kuti (Colourful translucent objects took the form of sea creatures, animals, etc)
Marbles
Bottle Caps
Pepsi Cola
Playing catching amongst Gong-gong's orchids

Every Sunday was all about waking up early to catch Care Bears, Gummy Bears, Smurfs, etc. Then slwoly progressed to Strawberry Shortcake, Pink Panther, Beetle Juice, etc. The cartoons were less violent then.

Sweet memories:
Staying there when my house was undergoing renovations. I was crying so bitterly while my older cousins tried pacifying me by reading Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs.
Catching dragonflies in Gong-gong's Orchid Garden.
Throwing the fallen rambutans up the tree to get more rambutans.
Playing with paper lanterns and candles.
Jeremy hitting my dress with a stick when it caught fire.
Adults playing mahjong and the aunties gossipping (They still do these days)
Running to the adults for $1.00 to buy satay when the Satayman comes in his scooter.
Running to the blue van to buy sweets, the 10-cents ice sticks, play tikam tikam and the glass bottled drinks.
Climbing over the neighbour's house to play. I can only remember names like Angie & Hong Yi.
Throwing tantrums by running away from the house to the dumps further down the road, I would start searching from interesting objects amongst the rubbles.
Decorating the X'mas tree with lots of miniature presents and ornaments made by Aunt Margaret.
Uncle Jerome would always be the one putting up the lights.

Everyone would rush for the shower at a certain time then sit down together for dinner, before Uncle Joe came home. Otherwise we would have to stand in a line and take turns to be scolded

Uncle Joe would send us home in his white hatched-back car.

I wish I could relive those memories again.
Ever since Gong-gong and Po-po shifted to HDB flat, the only fun we had was going to playground which we named 'Fire Station', 'Triangle', 'Mangosteen', etc).
As we grew older, more and more of us 'disappeared'.
The only times when everyone was present would Christmas, Chinese New Year, Weddings and Funerals.
And now, without Gong-gong & Po-po around, It doesn't take much other than 1 issue for the family to fall apart, I just wonder how long it will take.
(Keeping fingers crossed)

It always feels good reminiscing and relunctant to return to reality.
As technology advances and living standards increase, life is becoming more fast-paced yet mundane, living in pigeon holes and having our lives taken over by technology.

Jenny got us to fold an aeroplane out of paper and brought us out of the classroom.
She wanted us to throw our paper aeroplanes and watch whose could fly the furthest.
I felt awkward initially, thinking 'oh man, this is a small boy's game'.
Students who passed by gave us weird stares.
I smiled while watching my classmates throw their planes and I was the last to throw mine.
Mine flew the furthest!
I jumped for joy and everybody cheered.
I felt like a small kid for a moment.
I felt kind of silly and goofy but in a good way.
Jenny said Faiizah's plane flew only to Woodlands while mine went all the way to UK.
I could not stop grinning when my classmates asked me to teach them how I folded my aeroplane.
Haha...see...Adults need praises too...
Thereafter, I could not take my mind of UK.

When we returned to class, Jenny asked us to share about how/ what we PLAY these days, I was dumbfounded.
I took 10 seconds to tell her 'I don't know'.
Even Kak Linah, who is much more senior than me STILL PLAYS.
It hit me so much that I've been wasting my youth (not that old still)slogging.
How pathetic!