My Stories & Me
Sharing my journey in life and how it has shaped me to the person I am now 😜😜.
The reason I am writing this is for my daughters to know Daddy's past, and maybe what I have gone through will help them in their journey in life and benefit from it.
Well, here goes my story....😅
Born in 1975, year of the rabbit, I am a first gen Singaporean as my dad and mom were born in Hainan Island. I fainlty recall my mom telling us that we were staying somewhere in Chinatown before we got our first home,
Growing up with 2 brothers in a 1-room rental flat in Bukit Merah in the 80s, life has always been simple and fun. With a mom that was working 2-3 jobs daily and a dad working at a shipyard as an odd job worker, we were oblivious to the financial situations because of our hardworking parents. I always remember there was food in the house because mom and dad would let us boys eat first before they eat whatever that was leftover.
My mom worked many jobs to earn money to provide for us to go to school, pay rent and buy food. My mom's main job was in a factory soldering circuit boards on an assembly line in the night shift (11pm - 7am) for many many many many years. She choose the job because the night shift pays extra allowance, she could be around for us boys during the day and she could work additional ad-hoc jobs too. Because we stayed next to the Bukit Merah Hawker Center/Market (aka ABC Market), my mom has worked as a hawker stall helper and wet market frozen chicken stall helper. She also looked for part-time jobs where we glued rubber dolls together, removing the meat of cooked crabs and cutting the loose threads of newly made garments. all these for a little bit of extra cash for the family. We did the ad-hoc jobs as a family, kinda like a sweat shop using child labour (lol) but it was really fun at times when we were young. I remember seeing my mom smiling proudly checking her 555 booklet updated with her job earnings 😊😊. Although it wasn't much but to my mom, every dollar and cent meant more for the family. She really is an awesome mom.
One of my fondest memory during childhood was the plate of soya sauce chicken wing tips (only tips) during our meals, it was so delicious and we would pick them clean to the bone. My skills in eating clean chicken wing tips were trained very early in life and i am so proud of it because I soon realized not many people have this skill! 😜😜. I always feel so sad to see people either discarding their wingtips or not eating them because it has always filled me and my brother's stomachs and we have a lot of wonderful memories because of this lovely chicken part. When we asked our mom where did she buy so much wingtips, she said that the frozen chicken stall owner gave it to her as it is often disposed as people don't really buy them. I sincerely thank the public for not liking them, really thank you. 💖💖
I do not recall much about my dad honestly as he was a very quiet man