It was a slow day at work on Tuesday, so a like-minded colleague and I snuck out for a spot of shopping at Salvation Army during lunch. Ended up bagging lots of books from our childhood -- Enid Blyton, Sweet Dreams, trashy romance novels. So happiness, so nostalgia, and so cheap too.
For those who grew up on Blue Dragons, Red Dragons and Green Dragons, here is what esteemed children's book correspondent Tan Keng Yao has written. [For those who are still clueless, I pity your deprived childhood.]
You know it's an Enid Blyton storybook when:
-- Twins are always one boy and one girl
-- All children mentioned in the book are inevitably goody two shoes
-- That is, unless they are meant to be bad children who will inevitable be reformed at the end of the story with the aid of other goody two shoes
-- One day spent in Fairyland will equal one hour in the human world
-- Fairy dresses can be woven out of sunshine and mist
-- Rabbits and squirrels can talk
-- Toys come alive only at midnight
-- Unless they need to alert their owner about a fire in the nursery, which is when they can come alive anytime
-- Boarding schools for boys don't exist
-- Boarding schools for girls are run by old spinsters
-- You get sent to coventry for bad behaviour
-- A railway system runs in a rabbit tunnel
-- The word "cross" is used to describe someone who is fuming mad
-- Tea parties always consist of treacle pudding and warm lemonade
-- When the children catch colds, they are not allowed to attend parties
-- Adults always discourage children from reporting each other's misdeeds to them. They call it "telling tales"
food diary
Milo
weird bun with mystery meat
dumpling soup
mutton soup with French loaf
steamed fish [so vile, yet my Mum insists of making it so often]
cauliflower and carrots
half bowl of rice
half an orange
one pear
