The naughtiest girl in the school (Singapore)

I mentioned to Wilson Tan (schoolmate in the Arts stream at Raffles Institution [RI]) Siva’s nickname for me (in blog Reputations live on forever).  He asked me what I’d done to Siva to warrant such a sobriquet.  I said I didn’t remember doing anything TO Siva, whose nickname for me, I do remember, was Twinkle Toes as I was (and still am) very clumsy.

I told Wilson the only thing I could think of was what I did do to James Shi's name.  

Each day, two students’ names would go up on the blackboard for classroom cleaning duties.  When James’s name was up, I’d go and draw three horizontal lines extending right from the vertical of the last letter in SHI, making him James SHE.

Coming away from that conversation with Wilson, three more memories have now surfaced.

One of the boys in my class is called Wee Bin, with the nickname of Vim (given by his family, I think).  There was a TV advert at the time for a scouring powder under the brand name of Vim.  The jingle was sung in English and Cantonese to the same tune.  The English version goes:

All cleaning jobs are easy easy easy

All cleaning jobs are easy easy easy

All cleaning jobs are easy — with VIM!

I’d sing it to poor Wee Bin each time I saw him.

One day, I witnessed him throwing a piece of scrunched-up paper into the waste paper basket, so I went, “From one Bin to another!”  Poor boy.

There was another boy in my class, Boo Tat, whom we’d affectionately call Boo Boo.  At the time, there was a pop song called Me and You and a dog named Boo (1971 single debut by Lobo), so I’d sing it to Boo Tat whenever I saw him.

I’m now beginning to understand how I got that nickname…

(Singapore, 1971–1972)

Reputations live on forever:  https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2017/12/reputations-live-on-forever-singapore.html 

Reputations live on forever (Singapore / London)

Ex-student Jo invites me round for a meal every now and then, maybe to thank me for all those years of baby-sitting Ella (who is now 17!) and helping out on the allotment.  I will tease Ella when dishing out the food:  when she says “a bit”, I will give her one tiny morsel (less than half a mouthful) or, in the case of countables like peas or Brussels sprouts, just one.

Pub colleague Matilde was given a box of chocolate the other day and came into the staff room to share them.  I said to Lee, the other person in the room, “Take the whole box and give one back to her.”

When I went back to Singapore in 2002 for a reunion of our batch (1971–1972) at Raffles Institution (RI), Balan, who was giving me a lift to the event, said he’d arranged to meet Siva at the Singapore Cricket Club for a beer before going to Raffles City (the site of the old RI) for the reunion party.  

We arrived to find Chin Tuan already ensconced at the bar, looking like he’d been there a little while.  

He shook hands with Siva and Balan, then turned to me, “I know the face but can’t quite place the name.”  (I’d last seen Chin Tuan in 1972.)  

As he was having trouble coming up with a name, Siva prompted him, “The naughtiest girl in the school.”  

Chin Tuan immediately produced my full name, which is not a common name.  And after all these years as well!  

It was certainly new to me that I was the naughtiest girl in the school!!

(Singapore, 2002; London, 2010–17)

The naughtiest girl in the school:  https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-naughtiest-girl-in-school-singapore.html