Match-making session gone awry.

He occasionally glanced over his shoulder to make sure Ginny was still with him. She was just a pace or two behind. "You don't have to follow me", he said. "We're a very advanced country. Girls can walk beside men, go to school, everything."

In an attempt to curb myself from being a public nuisance, I convulsed and jerked on my bus seat in silent fits of laughter. I had an unexpectedly strong reaction to that quote.

I covered 4km in 22:31. Average of 2:15 per round, which is my personal best! Sec 3 was my best. 12:35. Ooh, that's fast. Cool. But my standing broad jump is seriously CMI. Wah, just looking at my report book brings back such memories.

I got C6 both times for Appreciation of Chinese Culture. Mandatory lower sec subject in SAP schools. HA. You wouldn't find a soul fully conscious after the end of the lesson. We'd all be knocked out semi-unconscious by Xie Yao's dull lessons. The only time everyone paid undivided attention in ACC was when Lu Han Lin was our teacher, and gave us a talk about how girls should wait till university to get boyfriends. Girls generally mature earlier than boys, so the guys in secondary school will be too childish. In junior college, the boys would be heading off to NS, so after a short while of bliss, we'd have to be separated anyways.

Only in university is it advisable to start looking out for partners because the men there would have matured after NS, and they'd be so much more appealing than our same-age peers because they'd be older as well. And you may query, what does that have to do with ACC? Absolutely nothing.

Speaing about boyfriends, I must tell you this story. Last December, my mother asked me to go for dinner with her long-time client-turned-friend and his son. With nothing better to do, I went along with my little brother. Only at the end of dinner did I realise it was meant to be a matchmaking session of sorts. I think she had good intentions, though. She was trying to find me a new boyfriend after the break-up, and at the same time she wanted to ensure he was emblazoned with the Mummy's Stamp of Approval. Well, the previous one certainly wasn't, and she gave me a lot of shit about it.

MOVING ON...

I was so taken aback that my mum actually does this sort of thing. I scrambled through my memory for any redeeming qualities the guy may have. He's about 20 or 21 years old. I shall not talk about his looks, lest I appear superficial (like you don't already know I am, lol) , but otherwise, he didn't seem exceptionally charming. But my mother told me, "Eh, he is filthy rich okay."

I kept that in mind, and not long after my mother spoke to me again.

"Today, the XXX Company's boss called me. He asked me how come my daughter never call his son. I tell him, 'Aiyo, you stupid is it? How can you ask my daughter to call your son? Should be the other way round!' " My mom narrated in raucous Hokkien, laughing.

I forgot all about the issue until today when my mom said, "Today the XXX Company's boss called. He asked for your number lah, so his son can contact you. I told him off for not using his brain. Nowadays youngster like to use the Internet, so exchange email address better! At least if things don't turn out well it won't be so awkward."

I was seriously amused, and I wondered if the son is that desperate, or if the father is that desperate for his son to get a girlfriend. So I asked my mum, "How come his father like me so much ah?"

"Orh, he said, 'Wa kua ler eh za bo gia jin guai. Lao bu aneh gao, aneh kiang, gia buay pai ke de lo." (Your daughter looks like a good girl. Her mother so clever, daughter can't be that stupid.)

My mother retorted, "Aren't you scared my daughter will snatch all your money?"

The boss replied, "Don't have to worry lah. If they get married, when he dies, the money will be all hers anyway."

It's damn funny to hear about myself being talked about like that! Me, being married to a complete stranger? Unimagineable. Then my mother whispered conspiratorially to me: "He really is filthy rich. They have ten over shophouses blah blah blah."

I'm like, whatever. I was too amused to take her matchmaking attempts seriously. So much for my mother's old nonsense about boyfriends being bad for my studies. My disappointing 8 points only proved her right. No wonder she's so keen on pairing me up with that boy with the filthy rich father. My mum thinks I've been stupidified to the extent I can't support myself.