My Phobias
Well… everyone had their own phobias and it could varies from one phobia to another depending on the individual. Some even had more than one. For me, Daddy had 3!!
Phobia #3
Heights – It’s a common phobia and most people had phobia of heights. I supposed these people including your Daddy, are afraid of falling from high places. Ever wondered what it’s feels like to see the ground coming up at your face at very high speed? Since young, Daddy experienced many a times, falling and almost falling from great heights. Either falling off from trees climbing, or jumping down from those play ground’s structures (Which are a rare sight now.) I remembered the rates that my heart was beating at the moment when you made a slip or when you lost your balance that you would almost bit your tongue? Sound familiar??? Ouch! Come to thing of it, back when Daddy was still a boy, we stayed in HDB and on the 9th floor. As a playful boy, Daddy would often climb up onto the corridor’s ledge and sit on it. Alamak!! Scary boy! I nearly had a fall once! Since then, I stopped doing that. I supposed I developed my phobia of height since that incident.
Phobia #2
Spiders – Called it Karma or retributions. When Daddy was still a boy, around your age I remembered. I would love to torture the hell out of little insects like ants and spiders. Back then, Daddy had the opportunity to stay in ‘Kampong’ village where we would stayed in houses made from wooden planks as walls and zine thin foil as roof. The houses are shattered built in rural and undeveloped lands with lots of trees and bushes and the grounds are muddy and uneven. Like I mentioned. Kampong had lots of insects and pests that even when you sleep at nights, you will find them crawling all over your body. Brrrr… the thoughts of it’s sending shivers to my spine. Haha… Anyway, back then, Daddy would love to torture these small tiny spiders with thin long legs!! They could be easily found hiding at the back or corner of the wooden furnitures or, at the corner of the walls. Daddy would love to catch them and torture them by pulling off their legs one by one and performed horrible experiments (drowning, burning, electrocuting etc) on them. Daddy was a sadist…then. keke.
Back when Daddy’s grandma who stayed in kampong Sembawang, we stayed in the forest areas and there were lots of trees and yes! Spiders of various species and sizes!!! What that were common were the ????? Spiders! That make big webs between trees and they would usually grow to the size of an adult’s palm. These spiders are mostly black had a small body with a long backside with white stripes! As a kid, Daddy like to throws stones at their webs from afar and destroying their home. It wasn’t surprising then that there was once, Daddy found one which made a hugh web just above the stairway from outside our house. One would definitely pass below the web if we were to go to the market. And Daddy hated the ideas of the spider dropping on me if I pass through the web. For many days, Daddy would pick up small stones to threw at the web. And everyday, the next morning, a new web would be made! Finally, at one day, Daddy managed to hit bull eyes and hit the spider off from it’s web! I guess the spider must be damned pissed off because it started crawling toward me!! I was so shocked and fell on my buttock and my legs go limp on me as I watch the spider moving closer to me! I guessed I must have panicked and started screaming for help! I remembered grandma coming out of the house, saw the spider, remove her slippers and ‘Smack’! The spider was squashed and sticky slimy gloos were sticking the ground and the slippers! Eeekkk!!!
That week, I had a nightmare where Daddy dreamt that I was being covered by crawling spiders all over my body and in my room and I screamed and screamed for help!! After that night, I developed my phobia for spiders! But while I had phobia on them, I’m also were fascinated by them. Especially the Tarantulas species! I find them so incredibly ‘attractive’!! Not to mention, Daddy is also a fan of Spider-man and Venom! Wahahaha!
Phobia #1
Mathematics – Most people would love this subject and are often good in it as well. For Daddy, it’s like Kryptonite to Superman! Or the Cross to Vampires! My #1 Nemesis!! You get my point, ya? Keke… But to say I fear it, I think a better say would be I hated it! To the core!! Arggghhh!!!! Perhaps this is due to the unhappy childhood that Daddy had gone through! Cos your Nai nai would always force me to memorize the damn time tables! And would want me to recite the tables to her every now and then. Failures to do so, I would ended up being caned or go without a meal! That was how strict your Nai nai was. So, when Daddy started schooling, I always skipped my homeworks. Especially on the subject, Math. I would hide and lied to Nai nai that either I had finished my homework or there are none. Then I would go to school the next day and copy from my friends. Keke.. Now, I do not expect you to follow after me and hope you would excel on this subject as it’s a important subject. You’ll need it everywhere you go!
Anyway, Daddy would always get very poor results for the Math tests and dare not show it to your Nai nai for fear she would get upsets and beat me up and punish me. Signz… Haha. Also, because the school would want us to show our parent our results and to get them to acknowledge the paper by signing on it, I would at times, attempt to forge my mom’s signature or, I would hide the papers under my bed or mattress and lied to her that I had not gotten the paper back yet. Therefore, when being found out, Daddy would ended up with canes marks all over my body the next day I go to school. Signz. I realized that hiding it from your Nai nai would only makes the beating worst! I remembered once I even score a low of 14 marks for my Math exam and I was so afraid to show it to your Nai nai when got home. Your Nai nai was so shocked and upset that she did not cane me like she would. Instead, she cried and cried.
Fyi, Daddy’s not afraid of the subject. I’m just too lazy to practice on it. After all, Mathematics is all about practicing! It’s this laziness that got me to poor grades. When I was sitting for my P.S.L.E, I did not do well on it and as a result, I was only able to go to a normal stream class instead of express class. Even during my G.C.E ‘O’ Levels, I did not do well in the same subject. Ended up repeating myself a year more as a private candidate just to retake the stupid subject cos my grades were not good enough to gain me entry to a polytechnics. Even when I finally got in to Singapore Poly, I would skips math tutorial classes to go out with your mom (we were classmates and had started dating during our first year. Keke…) So, it wasn’t surprised that we both failed our semester papers and even flung the sub-papers!! Damned!! We repeated another half a year more!! Since then, I had always hated the subject! Even till now!
So, I hope you will learn from Daddy lessons and dun ever follows my footsteps!!
3rd Uncle and Baby Me! 
