Can't really remember much of my first few years of life except for what was told to me. Didn't even have any recollection that i stayed in Kuala Lumpur before. Neither could I ever remember that my favorite cousins actually stayed next door before in Ipoh when i was really young. Strange how memory works. I could remember vividly when they were slightly older and stayed in Klang but would make twice yearly visits to our house during the school holidays and we would have these big fights and quarrels and get along really well almost immediately after that. How wonderful were relationships when we were younger. So simple, so pure. The two of them are a guy a year older than me, the other a girl a year younger than me. And together we formed the 3 youngest musketeers of the Tan family on my mom's side.

Tuesday,17th July 1984 .

Beads of perspiration trickled down her clammy skin. Rivulets form when they met. Hair matted and clumped together by the slick sweat and sickening humidity in the air, dishevelled. Eyes bloodshot, every fibre of her physical being wracked, contused from 8 continuous hours of forceful contractions and spasms that only grew stronger as the seconds ticked by. The ordeal had begin in the wee hours of the morning. She was jolted awake from her restless slumber, literally, by a sharp, searing pain lancinating through her torso like a bolt of lightning through a clear cloudless night. Sensing that it was time, she had woken up her husband and they drove to the hospital where she had been hooked up to various thingamajigs that beeped, clucked and blinked. Her attending obstetrician had arrived within 15 minutes from her warding and ran through the standard battery of examinations and tests. All that was 8 hours ago. 8 fucking long torturous hours where every other second, a series of rhythmic contractions would pulsate through, twisting her muscles into a bunch of knots that brought out the tears and cries in full force.

"Rose, Rose? Just hang on and push hard now all right, he should be coming out about anytime now. Breathe in and pusssshhhhh...." Her thoughts were jolted back to the delivery theatre by the physician's instructions. Clenching her teeth, gripping the sheets with her fists till her knuckles whitened, she squeezed as hard as she could. Her senses have been somewhat dulled by the jab to the spinal column which was supposed to lessen the pain of the delivery. Bah humbug, lessen the pain my arse! the thought screamed inside her head. "Good, good, let's keep that up, shall we. Just another few more of those and he'll be out. I can see his head already" reassured the physician, again jolting her back to reality. Hhhhnggrrrrrarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...she squeezed with all her might.

And with that, i popped into the world.

The first thing that i did once I was delivered into this world? Well, according to my mom, i started sucking on my thumb within moments of appearing! Hehe, my love for food was apparent really early on in life i guess. ;)

Prologue

It's the 3rd day of 2009. Also the first day i will be embarking on this autobiography, if you may classify it as such. I had just finished a book, albeit a short one, my first in quite a span of time. Tuesdays with Morrie was the title. I shan't divulge the contents of the book, so as not to bore you and so that i won't rob those who intend to partake in the pleasure of savoring its pages for themselves of the experience.

What does the book have to do with this blog? I hear you whispering in your mind. To surmise it simply, as Prof. Morrie Schwartz in Tuesdays with Morrie expresses so beautifully, " To find a meaningful life, devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning". It's been almost 7 years since my last non-factual, non score-well-in-the-exam-format oriented essay. So long that i've since forgotten what simple joy i used to derive from writing creative pieces, though they are not Pulitzer prize winning literature. Somewhere along the years of upper secondary school, essay writing morphed from an immensely satisfying effort to standard format, fit into model template chores that were necessary to satisfy the exam board's wants.

Thus, i hope to be able to rekindle my writing spirit through this project for fun, for remembrance and for the fulfilment it will nourish me with.

The stories written hence forth will be chronological, starting from the heydays of childhood and picking its way through the passage of time to the present. They will be based on whatever vivid memories i can dig out from the recesses and hidden corners of my mind. Incidents which shaped my thoughts, people who molded me to be who i am, and the gamut of emotions that ran their course throughout these 24 years.

i hope that it will be good enough to make you cringe, laugh, cry, smile, frown, contemplate and reminsce on your own yesteryears and memories from not too long ago. Enjoy.

P/S: Try not to fall asleep ya, or yawn too much for that matter ;)