Stories of KK

We hop along to check out KK’s ‘freelance’ gig to see where he disappears to every Saturday.  It’s a container in a corner of Singapore most people have never seen. * The ubiquitous site stray It reminds me of when he was in another container doing Gardens by the Bay, and we used to visit every so often (The Gardens container was much nicer though, it had faux wood floors). This time, he’s helping to build a train depot out in Mandai. A depot is a place where the trains park and get their health checks when they’re not running. The room – a white-walled square with a table and two chairs – is dreadfully blah and the girls and I chomp at the bit to do it up. Flowers? Soft toys? Photos? KK puts us down: Please lah . Don’t. Otherwise, they all head toward the vending machine as the most attractive thing onsite.

So what if KK failed so many papers he had to be retained a year in NTU? He’s very slowly but surely moved, step by step, toward his dream. The Masters, the Professional Engineer's certification, and now the business – kkgeo (short for KK Geotechnical) – which we registered in July last year, but which only sort of went ‘live’ in March (bank account, email domain) when a worthy opportunity came along for him to take on freelance work. * Here's the logo again, for good measure Right now he has a foot in two boats. There’s kkgeo, but his old company still wants him. So he splits, four days with his employer, and two days for his own stuff. I, too, have the privilege of being “Administrative Support, KK Geo Consulting” (the ‘administrative support’ part really tickles his funny bone). I have come full circle from the days I used to be his secretary in a committee to organize joint hall orientation activities in NTU. We were 19 and 23. Now we’re 40 and 44. Then it was just writing...

Doesn’t he look cosy, warm and comfortable? In reality, his face is black and he is very, very worried. The atmosphere in our living room is one of doom and gloom. What he’s watching on television is a match between Manchester United and Fulham. Soccer teams. KK’s lifelong love, Manchester United, is going down the drain, facing a crisis unlike any other since KK became a fan nearly 40 years ago. In a nutshell, their maverick gum-chewing veteran manager Alex Ferguson finally retires after 37 years, and taking his place is the honest down-to-earth somewhat stodgy David Moyes who has no idea how to drive a Ferrari after a lifetime of Hondas. Champions last year, losers this year. Same bunch of players, by the way. I, after years of ignorance (who wants to watch the same team of spoilt overpaid millionaires win a ball game year after year?) am suddenly very interested. Finally! There’s some drama! Why are the same bunch of star players suddenly losing to losers? What in the world did ...

Papa sleeping in the tent, kids on the beach (the three tiny black figures). Making sandcastles, planes flying overhead. Papa and boy go blading, girls chill out. She keeps everything neat and tidy and clean. Boy makes a sand bug after blading. Mummy plays frisbee with Papa and gazes at the dappled roof of the tent before falling asleep.

Their mysterious father. KK’s childhood is sketchy and vague. His constant rejoinder: I don’t want to remember it. Even I don’t know much about it apart from the fact that he was poor. Which is perhaps why he doesn't want to remember it. There are few photos of KK as a child. Actually there are only three, along with a total of three precious passport snaps. Two show him with animals. He’s always been an animal person. He likes them and they like him (unlike me). * Brother, father, KK * In Segamat, Malaysia, visiting the extended family * Ping Ping and An An ( 平 平 and  安安) On his childhood he said: “When I looked at my parents I know that I must work hard. I knew that I must depend on myself and not on them.” He grew up in a Boon Lay two-room flat, the middle child with an elder brother and younger sister. At night, swarms of flies and cockroaches would sometimes invade the flat. Till today he is terrified of roaches. Jumps on a chair when he sees one. He went to school at the now-...

The highlight of a trip is not always the best thing, it’s sometimes the worst. It was the mountain. Halla San is right smack in the middle of Korea’s Jeju Island and is the highest mountain in South Korea. Its 1,950m above sea level and is supposed to be very beautiful. Nobody said anything about climbing it. With ages from 5 to 76, our party was just going to sort of skirt around it. You know, take some photos and say we were there but not actually sweat. Then Teng got a bee in his bonnet. He had to climb it. We decided to split. The very old, the very young, the females and the sick would visit museums and drink coffee in warm cafes. Teng, KK and Day would climb the mountain. The big day, the boys emerged at 6am. The lady owner of our hostel Sylvia eyed the trio suspiciously, unsure if they were serious about it. Outside it was freezing and was about to rain. KK was clad in bermudas, a polo shirt, long-sleeved inner wear and thin-soled shoes completely unsuitable for a mountain trek...

What is a mid-life crisis? It, as Wikipedia defines it, is a time when adults realize their own mortality and how much time is left in their life. I think their papa is going through a mid-life crisis. He’s been doing Out-of-the-Ordinary Things the past year. Pulling out some research from the Net, these are the symptoms specific to him. It’s all athletic: * A desire to get into (even better) physical shape * Re-starting things which he had dropped years earlier, like windsurfing   and marathoning and skateboarding * Wanting to pick up new things like kitesurfing And buying new things like new bikes. From the perspective of a patient wife, it makes life interesting. Apart from the fact that I have a ton of dust-gatherers around the house – skateboard (used once), windsurfing equipment (used twice), a Saris bike rack for transporting bicycles on the car (never used), tennis balls and rackets (number of times used can be counted on one hand), rollerblades (still using), golf bag (sti...