Childhood

When I was four I lived in Sanya with my grandparents, in a terraced house facing a small in-road, where the kids in the neighbourhood played. To the west of the houses was a field, where the old folk played croquet. Even then it was hard for me to get along with my peers, so I preferred playing croquet. And my grandparents kept me away from the others because they thought the others too rough, and besides, I was too clumsy to stay upright much of the time in a running and shrieking crowd.

Some time into each day the other kids would climb the tree in front of my house and pick the berries growing in the foliage, the same sort of berries that in Singapore would be littering the pavements and be carelessly stepped upon. And because I couldn't climb trees I could only watch from the second storey window, where my grandfather worked on his novel. And the boys taunted me from up the branches while stuffing their cheeks full of those red little things.

Maybe most of my childhood was missed this way, but I would say that guys are blessed in a sense that their childhoods extend way into their twenties. For me, it will be two years of it left. May these times bring much joy, comraderie and maximum messing around in nature. Like climbing trees.