Friday, June 26, 2009

Strong and Faithful

Fortis Atque Fidelis

These words are most probably the only Latin in my vocabulary as of now (besides Veni, Vidi, Vici), but three words that resonate most in my schooling life (and still do so until this moment). When I was a kid in Form 1 on my first week of school, I got lost in the maze of buildings that make up the Grand Old Lady. Over the years, the white walls faded and had been repainted several times thus giving a new lease of life into the magnificent structure.

Going back to school recently, albeit as a visitor and a proud Old Free, brings back the nostalgic feelings. The walls seem to be imprinted with memories of events and a myriad of emotions.
Walking along the corridors, my mind races to the time when I was looking forward to recess time (which student doesn’t?) and was one of the first in line for the then Malay (and sometimes Chinese) Laksa. That was my appetizer..and then the ‘real’ meal was ‘Mamak’s Nasi Kandar’ – “Mamak, telur setengah masak, bendi dua, kerang, ubi lebih, daging” and sometimes if I had some spare money, ‘kurma kambing’ (mutton) would be on my plate as well. Such was my enormous appetite, although all the ‘good food’ did not contribute much to my height, much to my dismay (Darn it!).. Anyway, I had become such a regular customer that the good ol’ Mamak would then instantly recognize me and all I had to do was indicate “Mamak…Biasa!” (accompanied with a slight nod of my head, ala Indian style) and he would exactly know what I wanted, with piping hot extra ‘kuah pedas’ on top of my already overflowing plate of goodness right in front of me in the next few minutes J

It’s been such a long while since I last tasted the canteen food since I am only able to visit the school on weekends and sometimes during the school holidays only. I wonder how the dear Mamak and his wife are doing now. I wish I could meet them and it’d also be good to meet Farouk the drink seller again and share some tales about the school.

Well, I had initially wanted to talk more of the architecture of the school but I guess my tummy is really hungry now (it’s almost meal time) and the images of my beloved Nasi Kandar seem to fill my mind more than anything else at the moment..(I wish it would fill my stomach too, while at it)..hehe…

Oh ya, the images. Here are some of the recently taken pictures of my alma mater from my personal collection. It’s still an on-going self-started assignment so I hope to be posting more images once there are more. In the meantime, this is my take on PFS on a serene Saturday morning as an Old Free and seen from an avid amateur photographer’s perspective.

p/s: I’d love to hear comments and feedback especially visitors who are current or Old Frees. If you have any thoughts, do share.





2 comments:

YN [永年] said...

Nostalgic indeed. Is the school recently repainted?

shutterspeed said...

I think the school had a new coat of paint last year...