Apart from several sojourn to the nearest malls with friends and us, my daughters have been pretty much cooped up in the house. And most of the time, they are surfing the Net. Doing what teenagers are supposed to be doing online... you know chatting, downloading, uploading and lots of myspace-related activities.
Which bring my equally restless mind back to yesteryears when I was at their age. However, try as I might, I only have vague recollections of my school holidays. God! I‘m old. Either that or I led a very uneventful life.
But one thing for sure, most of the stuff that we did during our school holidays were outdoor activities. And more often than not, it can be seasonal too.
For instance, when Mohamad Ali and Joe Bugner came to KL to box in 1975, most of our holiday activities were.. well.. boxing related. I remember my late father even bought us a boxing glove. Unfortunately, he only bought a pair. So my brother and I had to be resourceful and we boxed with only one hand (it helped that I’m a right hand person while he’s a left-hand person). Oooh! Now I geddit, perhaps that’s the reason why Bapak bought only a pair in the first place!!!!!! Jimat!!
A year later, it was badminton fever siang dan malam. The reason? The nation’s 1976 Thomas Cup emerged first runner up to Indonesia in Bangkok. And the whole country went wild (never mind that we were trashed 9-0 by Rudy Hartono and Co) with excitement. Don’t ask me why?
But suddenly make-shift badminton courts sprouted up all over the country. Including one in our own backyard. So like many others we played badminton. Luckily, this time Bapak bought two rackets!!!
But our activities were not necessarily events-related. But somehow, one major activity was usually preferred over the others. Like one holiday season, everybody (and I mean everybody) would be playing galah panjang and when the next holiday season rolled by, it’s police and thief (I called it polis entry, don't ask) fever.
And sometimes, in my household, our activities can be influenced by the most popular TV shows of the day. Case in point, when Vic Morrow and his Combat team ruled the airwaves, my brothers and I became soldiers and ... err.. communists (once my elder brother and I got into a huge fight as both wanted to be a communist. Why? Because to our young ears, communist sounded so much more sophisticated than soldier.
Luckily, I don’t have a sister. I firmly believe that if I had one, we would definitely become Donny and Marie... hehehehe.
