One hot Sunday...Remembering Parry...

Hiaz... Just spent a frustrating half an hour trying to log in to my blogger account. There seems to be some problem with my account. When I try to log in from the Blogger home page, my username was claimed to be non-existent! Well, my first post yesterday certainly didn't appear there by itself! In the mean time, I can only log in through my Google account... I suppose the detour is unavoidable for a computer idiot like me. :-(

Parry held its Closing Gala Dinner yesterday night. Wanted to go but found out too late. Jin Xi told me about the website only on the day before the closing date, and I only accessed the website on the night of the closing date... Haiz... Turns out Jun Jie and Xiao Wei didn't even know that Parry will be merging with Xing Hua wef next year - and I thought the news has already spread to all former students with at least some link to the Internet.

It's a pity that Parry will cease to exist in the near future. It seem not long ago when I first stepped into the school. I could vividly remember the sprawling field (it appeared in a television commercial for a rice company, starring Kit Chan), the tiny annex building which pales in comparison with the modern school halls (we often have to borrow the hall of the neighbouring Rosyth School for bigger events) and the numerous dilapidated buildings at a secluded corner of the compound. I also have fond memories for the rabbits and chickens kept in the coop behind the Teachers' Room, and the Science Garden, with its myriad of plants and a pond community. My school certainly would not look out of place on Ubin.

I loved that the school was situated in a quiet environment, away from incessant traffic noises. Surrounded by landed houses, it seemed to be shielded from the negative influences that permeates the world - relative isolation with only Rosyth as company. I could run around the field without having to endure car exhaust seeping into my nose, and attend classes unaffected by car horns and rumbling engines. It's a very different environment from modern, newer schools built in or near to housing estates due to space constraints. It results in noise and air pollution for both students and residents. An aunt of my who lives in Bishan, complains that the singing of the national anthem and school song in Catholic High (which happens to be my secondary school) wakes up her baby every morning. Well...perhaps I'm exaggerating the noise, and especially air pollution...

In any case, the school will not exist for much longer. Neither will the wide expanse of grass that is unrivalled in size by most schools in Singapore. It is perhaps ironic that the location, while drawing me to the school, is also the reason it has become redundant. Its sequestered nature has resulted in dwindling enrolment. Even Rosyth has moved out a couple of years ago. Unlike Rosyth, which is a 'branded' school, Parry is hardly known by anyone with no links to the school and is not living in that estate, and hence lack the drawing power. In fact, when Rosyth was still located there, many Parry students were failed applicants to Rosyth! It didn't help that Parry did not produce fantastic students who grap headlines and public attention. Last year's enrolment, I heard, was less than 100...

I'll always remember Parry. The same, it applies, I'm sure, for those men who frequent Parry field for a game of soccer during evenings...