I'm feeling a little sad. I would love to go back to Singapore. I have been back many times since I left home, and it's a very different city to what it was when I was growing up, but it still draws me. So I'm sad about that.
I'm also disappointed to miss seeing some people who will be there - a few of them were good friends of mine, back in the day.
Here, for the amusement of anyone reading this, is a pic of some of us on a school trip to France (yes, from Singapore).
I am the gormless tiny creature at the far left, in my fantastically awful red hat and silly expression. The girl next to me was the most popular girl in our year, the whole way through - she was clever and sporty too. And, you know what else? She is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I can't think of a single bad thing to say about her. Hate that. She isn't going this year. In the middle is someone who rode horses at the same club as me - she's organised a lot of the reunion. It will be a shame not to see her. And in the insane fluffy hat? Well, there's our high achiever. She came to our wedding, because she was working at the Canadian High Commission in Canberra (spouse was most taken with her - not the first time THAT happened, trust me). Last time I heard from her, she was the Canadian High Commissioner for Cambodia, all four foot eleven of her, but that was a while back ...
So, in some ways I wish I could be there. In other ways I'm glad to avoid the inevitable comparisons, the competition, the feeling that so few of us ended up quite where we thought we might.
I'll share one more photo, because this gives a sense of what I was like when I left high school. Fierce. (I had shaved my head for $200 bet some weeks before.) The girl next to me still looks EXACTLY like she does in this photo ...
