My Trip to Maturity - Teenager... The Notty Professor!

I stood in front of the mirror.. Looking at myself trying the secondary school uniform.. Yessss!! Light blue.. no more navy blue... I am going to enter the big people's school tomorrow!! "This is gonna be fun!!".. I thought to myself.. Felt quite excited about growing up and moving on to the next level of life.... "I'm gonna rock high school and make a lot of friends!!..... and my friends are gonna enjoy my company! Here I comeee!!!" and I doze off with the new school uniform. How easy it was to make me so excited then.. just the new high school uniform.. nothing else... Huh.. kid! What do you expect? I wish it is as easy to excite me now too...

Remember in my previous post, I mentioned that my clothes were only shorts and t-shirts? Aha... now, no more.. more decent... but NEVER skirt or gown or blouse... just changed from shorts to long-pants or jeans and maintain with the t-shirts... Oh yes... still tom-boy, with short hair and still with a lot of adventurous acts... My teenager-hood family buddies a.k.a. kamceng were my aunty, Cik Sue and my cousins, Kak Ja and Abele.. They played their own role in my life and we did some things together-gether... which some will be revealed in this post. Just keep on reading... Oh, not to forget, I had a group of badminton buddies too... they were Kak Sin and gang: Alex, Najib and Tall Bald Guy (I can't recall his name!). We used to play badminton together in front of Ayah Tok's house. That's how I got my badminton playing skills coz since teenager, I played badminton with boys and they were not bad badminton buddies, not bad at all....

Talking about Ayah Tok... Mama's late father (m.p.b.u.h.). I was very closed to him. I used to play in his house and sit with him and chit chat with him all the time. He used to tell me jokes, stories, riddles and his experience in handling his business.. What strategies he used and the lessons he learned. I got a few business tips from him. I love talking to him and I love him so much. I miss him dearly.... Being a playful girl.. I still remember, he was not an exceptional from my teasers... and how I teased him one night... the story goes like this... Our houses are just walking distance from each other and so as Mamalong's (Mama's eldest sister) house. It was our daily routine that every afternoon, before dusk, Mama and Me, will go and visit either Ayah Tok's or Mamalong's house and we will sit until sunset, and chit-chat and of course munch-munch (makan laaa). Cik Ma (Father Yee) and Cik Yah (Father Brother) sometimes join the club. They were great host and Mamalong is still a great host till now. Ayah Tok's referred Mama as 'Mek Ghoghib' coz we always arrive late, near Maghrib. So, that day, we visited Mamalong's house and so happened that Ayah Tok was not there yet. They asked me to go to his house and called him to come to join everybody in Mamalong's house. It was dusk. So, naughty me got an idea. I put talcum powder all over my face, just like in Seniman Bujang Lapok, totally white, and went to ring his (Ayah Tok) door bell. I just stood still in front of his door, didn't move a single muscle. When he opened the door, he was so shock to see the 'lembaga' in front of his house during dusk that his reaction was.. "Al-Faaaatiiihahhh!!" and he started to recite the holy quran and blow it on my face... ngeeheee.... Luckily I didn't cause any harm to his heart. He was very close to his grandsons/daughters and we all love him very dearly. He was a heavy smoker. During his sick days, he was asked by Dr Nawi not to smoke anymore but he thief-thief-ly (curi-curi...) smoked a few cigarettes a day and when he was caught doing so, he will say "Alooh, lembu tok hisap rokok pun mati jugok"... He left us since 1987 but he never leaves our heart!! He left us a legacy, the respected family name, HAMSHI and we the descendants are upholding it with pride and dignity! We love and miss you Ayah Tok!

It was my kinda thing, being a 'ghost'. Ayah Tok was not my only victim. Another naughty act of mine happened in our house and the victim was Isham, my kazen - Sham, if I haven't told you before, I am so sorry Sham, sooo sorry! Riz was my accomplice. One midnight, I asked Riz to call Isham saying that I need help. At that time, Isham was downstairs and I was upstairs. I waited at the edge of the stairs (upstairs), wearing all white (praying set) and again, put talcum powder on my face and made it all white. I just stood there and didn't move (PLEASE DON'T DO THIS AT HOME!!). Isham came running from downstairs and a few stairs before he reached me, he saw me and suddenly, kelepuk, like a jelly, he felt down on his bum while his fingers pointed at me. He was totally white.. as white as me! It was soo funny for me then... but not for him. Oh my.. Suddenly I feel so bad for doing that to him. I am so sorry Sham, I regret it. Isham is now a successful PLUS Engineer and a proud father of four living with his beautiful soulmate, Lily beside him.

Ok, back to my story. As I expected, secondary school was sooo much fun. I became the joker and the story teller in my class. From form 1 to 3, I was in the Commerce (perdagangan ?) class. My classmates were Wan Rusmini (a doctor now), Wan Razanah (also a doctor), Asrenee (a psychiatrist), Jani (a lawyer), Maznizan (MBA holder), Anuja (an engineer), Wan Haslindawani (a pathologist), Lily Suzlini (a marketing scholar), Lily Juliani (a teacher), Norazlin (a chemistry teacher), Norashikeen (an IT consultant), Wan Saridah (a housewife), Yap Ean Nee (an architect), Nik Ruziani (a psychiatrist) and many more..... All my classmates turned out to be professionals and successful in their life, meaning that I was not a bad influence huh (?? tak ada kena-mengena??). Back then, whenever teacher was not in the class, everybody will gather in a circle around me, at the back of the class and I will be the story teller.. telling jokes and stories to them. I am sure that my friends still remember this! Even now, whenever we meet, I will still be their story teller but the difference is that, their kids will also gather around me and enjoy my story telling... Too bad now, I don't have anybody to tell stories anymore because I am far-far away from everyone! How I miss talking to people, in my mother's tongue... Hu hu hu....

Anyway, I was neither the bad nor the best student (humble....). But I was selected to represent school in the Science and Maths Quiz team. Something funny happened during the challenge. Our school team won the first few rounds until we represented KB district and was against PM district, to fight for the State seat. I was on the hot seat. Didn't I mention before, I have Social Phobia? Well, scroll down to the previous post if you have no idea what am I talking about. Anyway, my phobia and my nerves decided to strike during the critical challenge. It was my turn to answer the quiz and it was a tie between us and the PM team. So, our victory depends on my correct answer to the quiz. I could feel the high pressure... furthermore ZS (my school) being one of the top school in the State, everybody was expecting our team to win. The question was "What is the biggest bird in the world?"... My sweat started to fall all over my face and my nerves were killing me (damn you nerve!!)... I was totally blackout and my nerves were controlling me... I have 5 seconds left to give the correct answer.. I pressed the buzzer... trying to be as confident as I could.... "GARUDA!", I answered.... suddenly, there were silent in the room, it was so still you could hear a pin drop.... but at that instant, the whole room burst out so loudly like there was a bomb dropped in the room...... "HUARGGHHHH.... HAAAA HAAAAA...... GARUDA.... HAHAHAHAHA... WARGHHHH... WARGH......".. everybody laughed their guts out to my answer... and of course, we lost the battle........ sorry guys!! Hahaha! I still laugh whenever I remember that incident! Seriously, GARUDA??? What was I thinking???? Eagle or Chicken would be a better answer!! Do you know what is the biggest bird in the world??? Heheh...

My sweetest memory with my form 3 friends was our Dikir Barat performance during the teacher's day. Me and Jani were the choreographer cum the Tukang Karut and Tok Jogha for that act. My friends will remember that and we captured the video which I still keep it till now. The show was a hit that the school requested us to perform again the next year. It was a very sweet memory which is kept tightly in our nostalgic events of life collections.

There was an April Fool trick that I put on my friend and want to share with you guys. It was 1st of April and its April Fool day guys! So, I approached one of my friends (my victim).. OK, before that, our school was girls only school, ZS, and our neighboring school was boys only school, SIC. Back to my story, I approached my friend and told her ... "Mc XX, your name is written everywhere in the SIC school washrooms!!" and she went ..."Err...Why??" .... I explained (with innocent face) "You know, that day, you were sitting in front of your house wearing skirt, and you were unaware that you exposed your torn red panty. Coincidently, one of the SIC boys passed in front of your house and saw that! And he knows you. So now, he told his friends about you and they wrote the graffiti all over in their school washrooms that 'Miss XX wore torn red panty'!!" ....... And my friend left me running to the washroom crying.... and I guess she didn't hear me shouted, "Hey! April Fool!!!"...... Mannn.. I didn't realize that I was that notty!!

During my school years, I was not a bookworm. I didn't actually read books a lot. My style was to concentrate in the classroom and make sure to understand whatever the teacher taught us and approached teacher with questions if I didn't understand any of the topics. I am also a last minute 'study pulun' person, which this habit followed me till the university. One of the reason was that, Mama will scold me if she saw me with books all the time. She will say "Study wak gapo gak Dek, nyo pah lah tu!".. So, as a good daughter, I listened to her. Therefore, I seldom study at home... huhu... But I master the past years questions. I did as many questions as my hands could lay on it. I remember once, one of the past years mathematic questions book had a few wrong answers and I detected it. So, I wrote to the STAR newspaper editor complaining about that and mentioning why it was wrong. They published my letter and a while later, the Publisher contacted me to say thank you! I have a very good relationship with the teachers. They all know me well and I am sure they still remember me, the notty but 'not bad' (humble again) student. Well, talking about being naughty, the teachers were also my victim. I once, locked my English teacher (late Cikgu Satimah, m.p.b.u.h) in the tuition centre for a while and she called me "Jepun zalim!!" for that... Well, I didn't actually left her there, I just locked her for less than five minutes and I opened the lock after that... Gurau jah... huhuhu... But she knew that I was just joking and being naughty. She knew me well... Even the most fierce teacher was my friend. I don't know why, I didn't get scolded by the teachers. Maybe because I did all my home-works on-time, scored well in all exams and concentrate during classes, despite of being playful and notty. Well, I guess they were happy with me coz I got all As for the SRP (PMR now) exam...

After SRP, we all move on into the real high-school, form 4. Because of the different results we got for the SRP, all of us (me and friends) were separated into different classes. Me, Dr Rusmini, Dr Asrenee, Dr Wan Razanah, Dr Wan Haslindawani and a few others were in 4 Science 1. Jani, Maznizan, Norazlin and a few others in 4 Science 2 and Lily and a few others in 4 Science 3. I really missed my friends and want them to be with me, especially my best buddy, Jani (she is still my best buddy till now!). So much so, during the classes, when I was bored and missed Jani, sometimes I asked permission from my teacher to go and see Jani in her class, saying that I have "Mugo" to tell her. So, I went to Jani's class, asked for Jani and when she came to me, I just whispered in her ear, "Mugo!" and then I went back to my class. That's all. My bench-side buddy was always Dr Rusmini. We sat beside each other every year. I remember, one day, I was very sleepy during Geography and it was not my favourite subject. The teacher was our HM (head-mistress), Pn Hasnah. Everybody was afraid of HM. But she was always nice to me. I couldn't open my eyes because I was sooo sleepy. So, I put my head down on the table trying to sleep and I told my partner, Dr Rusmini, if HM ask, tell HM that I have headache. Fair enough, HM came to my table and asked my partner, why is she (me) sleeping and she answered as I asked her to tell, that I have headache. So, quietly, HM said "Ok.. let her sleep.. don't disturb her! Class, let's not be too loud because Zie is having headache..!".. heheheh... so I doze off..... Zzzzzz....

After enjoying the honeymoon year, in form 4, I was more serious in my study during form 5 coz this was the SPM year... the important exam which can lead my future... I would like to thank Cikgu Illani for helping me and giving me extra classes in her own house to make sure I understand the chemistry and additional mathematics subjects which I had problems understanding it. She taught me tirelessly until I really understand all the lessons. Thanks a lot Cikgu Illani. Anyway, knowing my character, the most I did was that I just gave better attention in class. I am who I am. I can't suddenly transform into a nerd or a bookworm. This year, I was elected as the President of Badminton Club and represent school in single and doubles (Jani was my partner) and was quite active. When I exactly turned 17, I got my driving license and drove myself to school everyday with my blue Proton Saga Aeroback, DR 2141, a birthday present for my 16th birthday. I sometimes was late for school, very late, like 1 hour late... But I know really well how to camouflage it. What I did was, I will look at the timetable and waited for the teacher to change between subjects. I will arrive school exactly at that time, send my school bag through the broken window, at the back of our class to my classmate who sat there. Then, I will wait for the teacher to change and I will walk in the class through the front door, as if that I just came from the washroom. Got it??? Sneaky rite?? Well I got away all the times without being caught!!

I love my DR2141 so much! I enjoyed driving it. I remember how crazy I was in modifying the car. Initially, I equipped it with power-amp, sub-woofer and 10 + 2 speakers and twitters connected to a powerful player. That made the riding experience superb as if as you were in a concert. Later, I made it more sporty in its look by cutting short the two front tires springs and changed all of the rims into sport rims with wider and lower tires. This made the car lower. I also tinted dark all the windows. Then I made it more powerful by changing the exhaust system to a 4-2-1 and attached to a sporty exhaust. The sound it made when I press the gas paddle was like so 'merdu', I just loooovee it!!!.... Vrrroooommm.... vrooommmm... Well guys, it was in the 80's and that was the mode back then, modifying a Proton Saga to a Porsche!! What do you expect?? Anyway, this attracted the boys, Zarul, Mat Din, the boy with a BMW, etc. in my tuition class to race with me. So, whenever I went to the extra class, after class, we went chasing each other in town. Sometimes I won, sometimes they won. But above all, me and my girl-friends had so much fun! But well, of course Wan and Mama didn't know about this until this point, until they read this post! I hope my daughter won't repeat this act of mine... huhuuhuu.... I was the owner of this car for 6 years until I sold it when I was in the 3rd year of university.

My out of school activities were also interesting. Me, Abele, Jani and Lily used to go picnic at Kebun Pok Teh. Sometimes Cik Sue and Kak Ja followed. It's a small orchard with a few fruit trees and a small river. Whenever the fruit was in season, we went there to pick the fruits and sometimes we picnic at the river bank.. dived in the river... built raft from banana tree stem.. cooked maggi mee using fire which we made from dry tree branch... while at the same time enjoying the fruits... ala-ala kampung gituww... Just like kampung kids.. huhuhu... While other girls enjoyed playing with dolls and soft toys, I enjoyed playing with the bamboo gun which I made myself from scratch, gin rummy and black jack... Remember everyone (to whom it may concern)?? How we played black jack? Where we use rubber bands to replace money.. and how I won a lot of it!! I am sure you still remember all that!! Also we played gin, stayed up at night and didn't sleep till morning.. I still remember and it was so much fun!!!

Talking about bamboo.... I will definitely not forget an incident.... It was during fasting month, near Eidul Fitri. Have you heard about 'meriam buluh'??? Its a kind of cannon, made from big bamboo. Where one end you put the wick to light it and you put a mixture of explosive things inside the bamboo. So, when you lit the wick, the 'meriam buluh' suppose to give a big explosive sound. Ok, so, this 'meriam buluh' thinging was Kak Sin's job. I remember that he just got married and his wife, Kak Nor worked in Klinik Pancho. Kak Nor worked night shift that day and she already told Kak Sin not to play with the 'meriam buluh'. But Kak Sin thought it was going to be fun. So, he still set the cannon, put it facing the main road and lit the wick... but it went off half-way.. So, Kak Sin went to see, and all of the sudden, it lit back and KKKAAAABOOOMMMM!!!! It exploded on Kak Sin's face!!! His face turn black like a charcoal but luckily, just that, no injuries at other part of his body... Me, as the Notty Professor got an idea. I called Kak Nor, "Did you hear the explosive sound?" and she answered "yes! it was very loud (her work place was just across the street from our house)!! What was that??" and I said "It was Kak Sin and his 'meriam buluh'! It exploded on his face and now he is injured everywhere, his face, his head, his body.. bla bla bla... You should come and see him!". As soon as I hang up the call, I set up the stage. I asked Kak Sin to go to his room, sit on the bed and mummified him with bandage and put some fake blood (I always have this in stock!) on it. He looked so 'kecemasan'!!. And I asked JJ to sit beside him with a very sad face... (Good job JJ!). Poor Kak Nor came running home from work... and when she entered the room and saw Kak Sin. she cried.. "Siiinnn...!!!" and me and JJ left the room, leaving them to have alone time together and we closed the door... I din't know what happened after that... "Tum pase ayee... yoo muskudayee... kuche kuche ho ta hai..."

I enjoyed going outings with my BFF.. Jani and Lily. We, a few times went to KL together and slept in my aunty's house, Cik Nah or Cik Awi or Cik Nor. We had sleep overs, where most of the time, they came to sleep in my house. We supposed to study in a group revising the lessons. But that never happened. We ended up playing gin or watch videos. I remember once, we went outing to KB town. We ride on the trishaw where Me and Lily sat on the seat and Jani had to sit down. I pity the old guy who cycled the trishaw.. It must have been difficult for him to move the trishaw with three of us sitting in it.. He did say "Matilah pokcik kalu kena gateh lagu ni hari-hari mek!!".... huhuhu... That day also, Jani's sandal was broken and I suggested a brilliant idea to her that to cover her feet (the side which the sandal was broken) with 'plastik gelenya, a.k.a. plastik rok-rak'. So, we ended up attracting attention a lot people on the street with the new sandal model....

After all the hard work (really?)... I successfully completed my high-school and my SPM results were good enough to bring me to my new adventure... the university life!! I got accepted to do Matriculation in USM. Wooohooo!!!Here I come!!!!!