grown-up composition
In primary school I must have written at least five compositions under headings such as "An Eventful Day", "An Exciting Day", "An Unforgettable Day". Make that ten. The Chinese teacher had the same ideas as the English teacher.
I remember writing about a class excursion to the zoo, dressing up as one of Snow White's seven dwarfs, flying to Taiwan with my maternal grandmother to visit my relatives in Tainan, bringing three chicks home from school (it was a Science class in Primary 4 I think; we hatched them and drew the life-cycle chart in our jotter-books).
Those were a child's compositions. What happened today has shown me what an eventful, exciting, unforgettable day in grown-up terms can be. All except the last item are chronological:
1. My 98-year-old grandfather-in-law died of pneumonia at 6:47 a.m. He was the grandfather I never had.
2. When we got home from the hospital we found that Mr. Max, the Japanese Spitz, had chewed a portion of his back till it was sore and bloody.
3. When I got back from the vet's, there was a traffic police officer standing at our gate. He told me that he was here to impound noisynotes's car, because the road tax had expired.
4. I realized that noisynotes told me a white lie when he said that he had paid the road tax before he went on his three-week marketing tour around the world three weeks ago.
5. The car was towed away and noisynotes was given a red ticket that said the towing charge was $160.
6. noisynotes went to get the car back. He left the house at 11:30 a.m. He came back at 4 p.m. I decided not to tell him what I think about white lies; since I had taken compassionate leave, I thought I should be compassionate.
7. We went to the funeral parlor which my mother-in-law had chosen. It was in a light industry estate. Sorry, it was in what looked like a light industry estate. The same sort of buildings where you expect to find car mechanics.
8. I put in the final corrections to a short story and emailed it to a journal.
9. As expected, my stomach has keeled over to the stress and I have dutifully taken my diarrhea tablets.
And in true-blue aged form, I am begging to go to bed at 9 p.m., so that this day can end. It is time, R. I. P.
I remember writing about a class excursion to the zoo, dressing up as one of Snow White's seven dwarfs, flying to Taiwan with my maternal grandmother to visit my relatives in Tainan, bringing three chicks home from school (it was a Science class in Primary 4 I think; we hatched them and drew the life-cycle chart in our jotter-books).
Those were a child's compositions. What happened today has shown me what an eventful, exciting, unforgettable day in grown-up terms can be. All except the last item are chronological:
1. My 98-year-old grandfather-in-law died of pneumonia at 6:47 a.m. He was the grandfather I never had.
2. When we got home from the hospital we found that Mr. Max, the Japanese Spitz, had chewed a portion of his back till it was sore and bloody.
3. When I got back from the vet's, there was a traffic police officer standing at our gate. He told me that he was here to impound noisynotes's car, because the road tax had expired.
4. I realized that noisynotes told me a white lie when he said that he had paid the road tax before he went on his three-week marketing tour around the world three weeks ago.
5. The car was towed away and noisynotes was given a red ticket that said the towing charge was $160.
6. noisynotes went to get the car back. He left the house at 11:30 a.m. He came back at 4 p.m. I decided not to tell him what I think about white lies; since I had taken compassionate leave, I thought I should be compassionate.
7. We went to the funeral parlor which my mother-in-law had chosen. It was in a light industry estate. Sorry, it was in what looked like a light industry estate. The same sort of buildings where you expect to find car mechanics.
8. I put in the final corrections to a short story and emailed it to a journal.
9. As expected, my stomach has keeled over to the stress and I have dutifully taken my diarrhea tablets.
And in true-blue aged form, I am begging to go to bed at 9 p.m., so that this day can end. It is time, R. I. P.
Labels: personal
posted by wheyface at 8:26 PM
2 Comments:
take care. Be compassionate and forgiving, just what God would want us to be. :) - TOHA
TOHA:
Thank you.
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