The memoir of Gloria 06

Personal Recount

I arrived in this world on the 18th day of September, 1992. I am very lucky to be born in a rather well-to-do family. I have two older brothers, whose age gap between mine is three and nine years respectively, and two loving parents who never fail to spend time with us whenever they can. My mum quit her job when I was very young to become a housewife so that we had maximum attention and affection. My father would bring us to the beach at East Coast to pick some seashells, fish and cycle on the weekends. My parents would usually buy us whatever we want unless it is really expensive. Example? A puppy.

When I was five, we moved from a flat to a terrace house where I have lived up to now. Life between us children when we were young was not exactly that smooth as boys tend to be more mischievous when they were young. Quarrels and fight seemed inevitable among whenever we were within a radius of five meter from each other. Fights are usually of small things like who gets the better computer or game boy games, 'tamiyas', 'tamagotchis', etc... . Now that we have all grown up and are more mature, the number of quarrels and fights has decreased and our relationship with one another has improved. I still love going to the arcade instead of shopping though.

Being in a family where there are more males, I grew up playing with toy cars instead of dolls and spending my time in arcades playing some shooting and car games instead of going shopping. I love action movies instead of romantic ones. I still enjoy doing all these things now. I am now looking forward to next year where I can finally play my favourite game of pool which I learnt when I was primary six.

When I went to primary school, majority of my friends were guys and at the end of primary six, I only had one girl as my best friend while the others are guys. This is so as we love to play rough at that time. Seeing me with new bruises almost everyday was quite normal. Come to think of it, my primary school life was actually very fun and interesting.

My best female friend, when I was in primary school, and I still message each other frequently. Very frequently. As in everyday. Haha. As for guys, I only kept contact with two of them and we would talk over the phone whenever we are free.

Our family would usually take a vacation in Hong Kong or Genting when I was young. My recollection of my time in Hong Kong is vague as it was eons ago since I had last went there. As for Genting, I remember that the indoor theme park (arcade) is where we will spend most of our time in. I dreaded going to the outdoor theme park then as I could not ride many rides as I was still, to put in better words, too young. If not, it is just plain short compared to my brothers. By the end of each trip, we each would have a big prize (toy) that my dad had won for us. He is really good at winning stall games and catching toys. This 'talent' of his has never changed and every time I go up to Genting with my parents, I would look forward to winning prizes and a good game of pool and bowling with my father.

My favourite toy is also from Genting. I got it when we went up again during the end of year holidays when I was primary six. I was passing by this shop called "Lovely Lace", which is still there now, with my dad and saw a few lovely-looking toy puppies sitting on the shelf. Since I could never own a real puppy, I would get any adorable puppy soft toys that melted my heart at first sight. I scanned through the different breeds of puppies and my eyes were locked on a big, black and velvety rottweiler. I immediately checked the price and my heart sank. It was about 70RM if I am not wrong and I was almost certain at that point of time that my parents would never agree to purchase it for me. So I pretended that there was nothing that caught my eye and walked out of the shop. No matter where I was that day, my mind kept drifting back to the shop where the toy was. When dusk arrived, I did not want to leave Genting the next day with regrets so I brought my parents to the shop. I spotted a smaller version of the toy that was about 1/6 the size of the huge one and said that that was what I wanted and had been eyeing on. My father stared at it for a moment and then said something that made my want to jump and scream for joy. He said that it was too small and therefore useless so I should get the larger one. Till this day, that rottweiler is still my favourite stuffed toy dog which sits beside my bed, with its ever soft fur that never drops and a cute tag around his neck that reads 'Bruno'.