To think I would still have perfect eyesight today had it not been for the "A"-Levels.I was grew up under very strict upbringing where freedom as a kid was almost non-existent. (Maybe that's why I am so warped now. :P ) My life as a kid revolved around a timetable that detailed exactly what I should be doing at what time. Very regimental. Even when it's the school holidays, it's also the same. The dreaded timetable telling me when is play time, when to studying, when is art class etc.
Anyway, a glaring big part of the timetable that is missing from it is that there is no TV on school days. Quite sad lor when you are back in school the next day and you are clueless to your friends' discussion about the TV shows that they watched the day before.
Well, it's been like that since K1 to JC2 and I have had perfect eyesight all the way. It was nearing to the A-Level exams when my studying started to stretch past midnight. According to my timetable, I was supposed to be studying from 8pm to 12am. However, I would usually extend it on my own to 2am.
The stroke of midnight is routinely the time I would stop and take a break from the books and there was this one night I decided to switch on the TV, albeit secretly, just to see what's available at the hour.
God bless RTM2 where all the comedies were showing on weekday nights. Shows like Four On The Floor (Tue), The Dom Deluise Show (Wed), The Gary Shandling Show (Thu), The Benny Hill Show (Sat - TV3). These are not the mainstreamed comedy sitcoms that we usually see during prime time on SBC. These are the really good stuff. They are all half-hour sketches much like today's Saturday Night Live or MadTV.
My personal all-time favourite was The Gary Shandling Show where even the live audience were sometimes involved in the sketch.
In a word, I was hooked.
And thus started my illicit relationship with my TV everyday at the stroke of midnight. I can't turn on the living room lights coz that would wake everybody up and I also had to turn the volume down so low that I was practically sitting right in front of the TV in order to hear anything.
It wasn't before long that it was time to sit for my A-Level preliminaries. So there I was in the middle of the exam hall and I realised something strange. The big clock that the school placed in the middle of the stage was a blur. I couldn't tell the time from where I was sitting. Yes...
... My eyes spoil liao.
I guessed I never realised the extend of my loss until I was offered the RSAF Pilot's scholarship. It was to be a 6-year contract with an 8-year bond. Like every hot-blooded male, I dreamed of being a commercial airliner pilot at the end of that. Oh yah, the movie Top Gun was all the rage back then too. :P
However, it was not to be as I failed my eyesight test during my medical examination and hence POOF! goes my scholarship. I do have to give thanks to the nice people at the medical centre for not giving up on me so easily. I was in and out of that eye-examination room at least 6 times, before we mutually agreed to throw in the towel. I was offered the Air Defense Artillery Officer scholarship as an alternative but nah..... the idea of getting paid to 打飞机 was just not my cup of tea.
Then it was NS but I didn't bother about wearing glasses during my 2½ year stint. Nothing worthwhile to see anyway. Then it was contact lenses when I got to NTU coz by then, there were A LOT to see. hur hur hur.
I remembered my first pair of contact lens being RGP lens and lasted all of 45 minutes before it fell out in the middle of a taxi queue at Far East Plaza. Curse my rubbing hands!!
The replacement pair lasted 9 years though.
Q: Why do women rub their eyes when they wake up?
A: Coz they have no balls to scratch.
Image Credit: http://us.123rf.com
- Voxeros
1. kIm left...
By the way, how come all pilots are male ar?!
Monday, 12 December 2005 10:40 am
That is so sad. My friend has been yearning to become a pilot for the longest time. But no to avail la. And he has perfect eyesight leh! By the way, how come all pilots are male ar?!
2. akk left...
Monday, 12 December 2005 11:24 am
no balls to scratch? doesn't have to be her own.....*koff*
3. JayWalk left...
kIm: I believe the RSAF are starting to have female pilots already. I guess you don't see a lot of that as the new direction on policy is just taking off. Besides, you don't get a lot of female applicants to begin with.
akk: LOL!!!! Good one!!!
kIm: I believe the RSAF are starting to have female pilots already. I guess you don't see a lot of that as the new direction on policy is just taking off. Besides, you don't get a lot of female applicants to begin with.
akk: LOL!!!! Good one!!!
4. mht left...
no specs during NS...then your CTSS how? (isn't called CTSS during yr time?)
Tuesday, 13 December 2005 10:33 pm
sure you are watching RTM comedies and not some pron. no specs during NS...then your CTSS how? (isn't called CTSS during yr time?)
5. JayWalk left...
mht: Alamak brudder, last time no internet, you think pron so easily accessible meh?
Some more we all not like today's kids. Own room got own TV one. How to watch pron??? Siao lah you...
My time is BATP and AATP (Basic/Advance Arms Trainfire Program). I do ok lah. I passed the test with one eye closed. Piece of cake!
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