SOMETHING UNUSUAL THAT HAPPENED THAT DAY

 Last December school holidays, my family and I travelled to Thailand to visit my auntie and cousins.  It was my first trip to Thailand and my cousins were equally excited to see my family for we have not met for four years.

  My auntie and cousins live in a terrace house that was located in the outskirt of Bangkok.  We stayed in my cousin’s house for 12 days.  During the third to seven days, we made a trip to Chiangmai with my auntie and two cousins.  The rest of the days were spent in Bangkok shopping.  We were all thoroughly happy throughout the whole trip until the very last day before we flew back to Singapore.

  We went out for a last minute shopping spree in the afternoon.  By the time we went back to the house, it was already dusk and it was quite dark.  We were bushed and our only wish was to lie in bed.  When my aunt opened the main door of the house, she felt something had dropped on head and then to her hand.  She thought it was a leaf, so she just ignored it.  By then, we had all made our way into the living room.  Suddenly, my aunt screamed at the top of her voice and said “A python over there!” she pointed with a trembling hand. For one heart-stopping moment, I thought the snake would jump on us.  My mother let out a shrill scream of terror.  All of us ran out of the house as quickly as we could, even though our legs were quivering like jelly, fearing for our lives as the snake slithered in the house.  My heart pounded fast and I could see that all of us broke out in cold sweat.  At the same time, I was fascinated as this situation was not common in Singapore.

  In desperation, my auntie ran as fast as possible to the security counter for help.  Two of the security guards came armed with clubs into the house to search for the python.  We were told to stay out as it was very dangerous.  They combed the whole house for almost half an hour and finally found it lying straight behind the piano.  They only managed to chase it out of the house but not kill it.

  When my family returned to Singapore, we were glad as we felt more secure in our house.  It was one of the most unusual things that happened to me as I was the first time that I have ever seen a python. At the same time, I was fascinated as it would be difficult to find a python in the flat in Singapore.  Furthermore, it was really a close encounter that I would never forget.

A PROBLEM YOU ENCOUNTERED AND HOW YOU SOLVED OR MANAGED IT

  The Secondary One registration day was the very first time I stepped into Victoria School. On that day, my mother taught me how to go to and fro from my school to my home.  As my house is very far away from the school, I had to take a bus and transfer to MRT before reaching home.  I had a lot of difficulty remembering which bus-stop to alight at as I was not familiar with the road. 

  On the first day of my life in Victoria School, I had no difficulty going to school in the morning as I took a school bus.  However, when school was over, I could not even remember which bus-stop to go to and whether which bus number to take.  The road was busy and unbelievably noisy.  Cars were whizzing backwards and forwards.  I panicked and paced up and down around the school gate not knowing which direction to turn to.  That was how bad the situation was.  I took out my mobile phone and asked my mother for direction.  The next best thing that happened was, my mobile phone ran out of battery.  For fifteen minutes, I still had not found a solution to my problem.  Nervousness was written all over my face.

  As I was contemplating to take a taxi, I felt my pocket and realized that I did not have enough money.  At that very moment, I saw my senior walking out of the school gate.  We were from the same Primary School.  A faint smile flickered across my face as I finally saw someone I knew.  I told him my problem and seeing how anxious I was, he calmed me down.  He told me where he stayed and to my delight, it was quite near to my place.  I heaved a sigh of relief.  So, I decide to take the same bus as him for half the journey.   I alighted from the bus and transferred to the Serangoon MRT station.  I managed to find my way home.   I saw my mother pace up and down the void deck and at the same time look at her wristwatch.  I explained to her that I was lucky that my senior came out of the school at the right time and if not, who knows, I may have to wait in school for goodness knows how long?  Fancy getting lost in Singapore for the first time!

A SPECIAL MOMENT YOU ENJOYED WITH YOUR FAMILY

  I would always remember the time when my whole family celebrated Christmas last year.  It was a different feeling as my uncle, auntie and cousins flew over from Brunei to Singapore to celebrate the Christmas with us. As I only get to see my relatives one a year, I was dancing with joy and could not wait for them to come to Singapore.   We had a Christmas party on the Christmas Eve.

  We had steamboat for dinner.  On top of that, my father ordered a 9 pounds turkey and a suckling pig to go with it.  My mother baked some cookies and cakes.  Oh my god, the roasted turkey tasted heavenly with the cranberry sauce and the suckling pig was delectable as it was crispy.

  After everyone had their fill of food and drinks, we decide to play a board game called “Cluedo”.  It was a very fun and thrilling game and the purpose was to find out who the murderer was, where the murder had taken place and which weapon did the murderer used.  I flushed with delight when I was declared the winner and won presents.  The children played a few rounds of the game while the adults chatted happily for the night.  We stayed up until 12am the next morning to welcome the passing of Christmas.  We shook hands and wished one another “Merry Christmas”.  We exchanged Christmas presents. I was trembling with excitement when I opened my presents. My brother even played a few Christmas songs on the piano.

  When my mother said that it was time to go to bed, we were so reluctant to do so even though our eyes grew heavy with sleep.  I was hoping to spend more of this joyous occasion with everyone at home. This would be one of the few special moments which I enjoyed with my family.