My Sweetest Memories

My Sweetest Memories

If you thought these memories I mean were the one I had with my ex-girlfriend, then you're completely wrong!

Every person has his or her own special place where he or she thinks it brings happy and sweet memories for him/her. I, myself have a very unique place which brings joyful memory for me. It's a double-storey terrace house located at No.9, Jalan Kelicap 44, Jalan Meru, 41050 Klang. It had been a wonderful home for me for nearly fifteen years until I shifted to my new house in December 1996. Every time I remnicise about the red letter days I have spent in my old home whether with my family or friends or with my dog, I, will, of course be in cloud nine despite being a little bit depressive.

How can I forget my beautiful former home since I have been living there since I was two years old? It was full with many buoyant and unforgettable memories. When I was one year old, my sister was born. Two years later, my brother was born. Finally, my youngest sister was born a couple of years later. My siblings and I had then been playing together with our cousins.

When I was five, I started my school year when I entered kindergarten. Even though I had to go to kindergarten, I still find time playing (mostly toys) together with them. Things changed when I began going to primary school. Since Standard One, I had to take all the trouble to go to two schools every weekday; a Chinese school and a Malay school. Because of this, I never had enough time to spend with my siblings and cousins. So, I had to wait until the school holidays, especially for the half and last semester's holidays. That time, school holidays were months long (how lucky i was!). What else? We spent most of the school holidays playing with toys, toys and toys and nothing else.

I can still remember how my room in my former house looks like very well. I had to share it with my brother as there were seven members in the family. The room wasn't really big, just about forty square feet. I started sharing room with my brother since I was twelve. Before that I shared it with my sister who is just a year younger than me. I remember that my room was the main venue where everything happened. During school holidays, my cousins came to play with us and it took place at my room. We started playing together since we were very young, but since I had a room of mine, which I had to share with my brother, we began playing card games and board games like UNO, Poker, Checker, Chess, Monopoly, Cluedo and many other card and board games which were really fun to play with, instead of dealing with toys (yes, we have grown up!). Everyday was a red letter day when it came to school holidays as there were only fun, excitement, leisure and enjoyment all day long! Every minute was a joyous moment. It was like we were celebrating something every time we met. It was like we were in Brazil! It was a feast!

We had different activities on every school holidays. During the mid-year break in 1994, we - my siblings, cousins and I, had great physical activities. The activity we spent most time on was badminton. We spent endless hours on the sports. Somemore that time was Thomas Cup period. I, was, of course, superior in the game as I used to exercise and do weight-lifting and I'm the eldest. They were very afraid of my jumping smash. Sometimes, we even played with our backdoor neighbors - it was challenging, man! As our front gate was renovated into somewhat taller automatic gate, we played less badminton but went cycling instead. Cycling was fun and exciting even though once I fell down into the drain. Other than that, we also went hitch-hiking in a jungle nearby, just ten meters away. One year later, we turned to indoor activities. We played lots of board games like Chess, Career, Cluedo, and Monopoly in the lounge - and it was really really really fantastic!

About the master bedroom, well, I think I can remember it very well. Ever since I started to shift into the beautiful old house (that time it was new), I shared the room with my parents. Our master bedroom was actually two big rooms, but my parents decided to make it into one big room. So, when my siblings were born, I had to share my bed with them. I can still recall the moments, all of us (my siblings and I) slept together on a bed. It was funny but I really missed those moments. I was only five when it took place. We had to move into other rooms as we grew bigger. In 1995, my dad bought a PC, and he put it in the master bedroom. Before that, we had a computer which was put near the dining area, near the stairs. But, it was spoilt, even before I reached the age of twelve. As for the new computer, my siblings and I had spent many endless hours on it, mostly on computer games. We sometimes, even played with our cousins and friends too.

The place where all the social interaction and everyday lives took place, was the living room. The living room wasn't really large but all the happy moments I had won't disappear in my mind. It was the place where my family and I had spent a lot of time together, watching television, listening to the music, and doing social activities like arguing, yeah! It was the place where guests came and sat down. During Chinese New Year, it was the place where relatives, friends and neighbors gave 'ang pow' and I love 'ang pow'! It was also the place where birthday parties and New Year's feast took place.

Other than that, the facade was quite a memorable place. It was a place of many events. Everything in our lives started here as it was also the portal to the house. As I had mentioned earlier, we had a dog in the house, well, actually we had a cute little brown puppy called 'Daniel'. Unfortunately, it ran away at nite and was never found again. So, we got ourselves a new puppy and named it 'Danny' (how stupid, the 1st dog was named by me but the 2nd was by someone else). It was a naughty white puppy which we had for two years until the floor was renovated. After that it was err.. gone like magic, hahaha! Playing with the puppy was great fun. All the chasing and sweating made it even more fun. The facade was also the venue where we played badminton, skateboards and soccer. When the Lantern Festival came, we played lantern and lit up as many lanterns as possible. Besides that, we even lit up lotta candles in on the cement floor (before it was renovated, of course). Our cousins usually joined us in the festival. While, during Chinese New Years nites, we used to play fire crackers. Too bad when all the excitement of Lantern Festival and fire crackers experience had to bring to a halt when our facade's floor and gate were renovated (and the dog was gone too! muahahahahahahahahahaha!!! oops! :X) moreover, the government banned fire crackers!

Ultimately, the balcony was a great place in our home. Some might say it is just a place to hang clothes, but it was a meaningful place for me. As I can remember, it was a place where we (my siblings and I) spent together during black-outs. We could have a lot of fun even it was during black-outs. My brother would play with the candles, trying to blow out the candles with his magic trick while my sisters would be busy looking at people passing by on the road. They would use the torchlight to shine at those people! I would lie down on the cool Terezo ground listening to my Sony walkman. We would enjoy looking at the fireflies which were really rare, and at the beautiful sky, which was filled with twinkling little stars, a moon, and many, uncounted hopes.