Stories of KK

KK and Day had the time of their lives, because after skiing on Day 1, they decided to sign up for a snowboarding class on Day 2.  The class barely scraped the surface of what they need to know, but after coming down the slopes several times and falling spectacularly, they started having fun. So much fun that even after KK injured his ribs (sneezing became painful and he couldn’t quite carry the luggage), he longed for a couple more days of snowboarding, ribs be damned, so he can become as proficient as some of the guys whizzing past him. (He hopes to go snowboarding again with Day, so that’s great news because it means he’ll be willing to fly again) Skiing and snowboarding are also two of the rare things where I see Day trying hard, again and again, to become better. (doesn’t apply to schoolwork or piano or any of the usual yardsticks of success) * In which KK takes very long to appear, long after Day and Jo, and when he does, falls * In which the trio ski in the dying light of th...

KK doesn’t have to go to Mandai  anymore. That means he has an extra 75 hours a month, a lot more time in which to spend a lot less money. The point is that he’ll get to be home a lot more, and he’ll be with us on Saturdays once again, and even a weekday afternoon or two. Never mind the money. We’ll get by. It’s time to celebrate! In memory of this great occasion, Jo and I do a video of his first weekend post-Mandai. I shoot the videos, send them to her via Whatsapp, and she edits and puts together the entire thing just like what she did the last time.

The one thing KK wants to do in KL is to visit the soaring Petronas Twin Towers, which we are also staying right next to. He views the construction videos and observes the sides of the tower with an engineer’s eye. * Who watches these videos? KK! * He is most fascinated by the thick struts which hold up the sky bridge (which is not fixed to the sides of the two towers. It's kind of flexible) * There's the sky bridge and the huge diagonal struts on either side

The other day KK’s sister says to him: Why do you keep taking all these exams if you keep failing? Because he still is, failing. New sorts of exams. KK says, just take  lor . Sooner or later I’ll pass. And he does. Then it strikes me that no one really knows how many times you’ve tried. You could have failed 10 times but once you get it, you put it up on your resume and it’s there, another light for your professional Christmas tree, for life.  It’s something new to me, I who won’t do anything if I think I’ll fail. I never gather any baubles for my professional Christmas tree. I hope KK’s attitude is one which will rub off on the kids. He never talks about it, but you know, he's their role-model and all. The other day we splurge on a nice meal at Etna Italian Restaurant (its the sort of place where waiters come up to you to recite the menu) because KK has gotten new lights. After failing once and a lot of grief, he’s finally become a Qualified Erosion Control Professional. Whic...

  What were we doing at a European car showroom on a Wednesday afternoon? It’s all terribly exciting, because we were there to collect a brand-new vehicle. But it wasn’t a car. It was a bike. A motorbike. A 1,200cc BMW motorbike, model R1200R. How did we get here? One, it was necessary. With his freelance work, KK found himself having to travel to places in Singapore with no buses or MRT stations and which no taxi driver wants to go to at all sorts of odd hours. Like in far-off Mandai, or to Jurong Island. Can he take the family car? I said yes, he can have it, the kids and I can bus and cab around. That was my preferred option. He said no. Can he get a second car? Both of us agree, no way. Two, it’s on his bucket list. He's missed riding since he sold off the Harley nine years ago. Since he needs a bike, he will get one that he wants. Yeah, he did the whole checking out second-hand bikes thing, but all his research ultimately led him to BMW. In preparation for re-entry i...

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...