Dao and Blur

When a bunch of long-time friends gathers, especially girl friends, it is not unusual for us to trade gossip about who and who that we have known or laugh out loud at our past stupidities. This is more so for us who are already very used to seeing one another in her most depressed, embarrassed or jubilant moments.

Strangely, most of what happened in school days have become a blur, including some of our school mates and teachers. Characteristically blur, it is not surprising that sometimes I pass by people who have known me but whom I have little recollection (especially for those who have since blossomed to smart gentlemen or pretty ladies). On other occasions, I recognise the person who just simply could not recall his / her name. It certainly does not help that I cannot even remember where or when I have met the person or how we have become acquainted.

Enough of the digression. I guess it is another sign of age where I seem to blabber on without noticing.

Sharon was sharing with the group about my blurness. I guess certain traits are innate. *Wink* We started off by jesting about each other's 'dao-ness' (Dao: (Hokkien) means arrogrant and aloof). We were complaining about our non-acknowledgement of each other despite being Japanese classmate, frequently sharing the same bus and meeting each other at the same bus-stop. We always needed to transfer buses at the stop opposite Far East Plaza to reach Newton. We have subsequently ended up sitting beside each other. (At this point, I was wracking my brains very hard - have Sharon and I ever sat beside each other?)

Nevertheless, it seemed like we use to go home together after classes. Once, Sharon was feeling dizzy after class, so she sat down en-route to the train station and hoped to steady herself before continuing with the journey. By the time she had regained her stability, it appeared that I had already gone out of sight. I had simply walked on and failed to notice the absence of Sharon! This was mid-nineties when mobile phones were not as prevalent. If we had missed each other, there was no way we could have contacted each other. At this juncture, Hui was already laughing incredulously. Moi? I was turning red from embarrassment of my blurness and my abandoning my friend when she was in need.

Well, this was not the end. Fortunately, I was not the 'star' in the other stories.

Back to the "dao" part. Apparently, I was not the one who thought Sharon used to be dao. Hui shared the same sentiments. I used to stereotype her to be an arrogant princess, especially with her jet black hair and porcelain features. Of course, it eventually turned up to a huge misunderstanding. While my stereotype stamped more from the exterior, Hui's misunderstanding of Sharon was more incident-driven. It appeared that when one of the Japanese class was cancelled, Sharon did not inform Hui despite them being in the same class in school and in MOELC. Hence, the misunderstanding that Sharon was a selfish person.

Fortunately, these misunderstandings were cleared soon after or we would not have shared close friendships for so many years. Yet, when we looked back at our pinafore days, we could not help laughing at each other's stupidity and blurness then, albeit fondly.