Basket.

Ha... quite a fun day today. Went back to RI on official business, to take photos of our new RJ campus just next door. That done, I decided to hang around my alma mater. It was, after all, literally my second home for four years.

I managed to meet Mr Mark Wee and Ms Soh Ai Hoon, quite nice to be able to talk to them again after such a long while. Man, RI certainly has changed. First and foremost, THE FRIGGIN' SOON KIAT ARE GONE! Ok, I knew that since early this year, but when I saw cleaners walking around in beige uniforms with buttons instead of the ubiquitous green shirts with "Soon Kiat Construction" on the back, the loss really hit.:-( And there are just so many teachers I don't recognise. Quite a few of our RI celebrities are gone, among them Mr Indra. Ayyy...

After wandering around thusly for a while, I went to the HML. It's still the best school library in all of Singapore, but the aircon seemed screwed; it was quite hot, which was definitely not typical.

There, I met a couple of my guitar juniors; pretty unexpected, I'd thought they would be at home studying for Common Test, traditionally Term 3 Week 2. Turns out because of SARS this year, they had two, one last term and the next in 5 weeks' time. Oh well.

So we chatted. Had some catching up to do, but I had been keeping abreast of events in RI, generally, so I knew quite a bit of stuff. In turn, they asked me about RJ. Ha, can't believe it, they were just like me last year going "RJ or bust, RJ or bust..." and "I'm going to go Poly". So funny.:-) They seemed particularly interested in the uniform, having heard it was fireproof, waterproof and chemical-proof, etc. Haha.

And so then, apparently the RIGE is in deep shit. They'll be lucky to get a Silver in the upcoming SYF. Apparently the problem is a lack of committment from members. Ah, old problem. But apparently the new teacher-in-charge is not as ruthless as Mrs Koh used to be (sigh, why did she have to go to Dunman?), so well, they've been muddling along... hai. Well none of this is my business anymore, but 4 years in the Ensemble, I can't help but continue to feel some kind of attachment to it.

We talked some more, then finally left together. We parted at J8, and I wondered when was the next time I would get to go back again. Hm, actually it's only a matter of months.:-p Felt great walking around RI again though, reliving memories and chatting with old aquaintances and teachers... one of the small joys of life I guess. Sighhhh...