Hey ho people. As promised during our last mass online conversation, here are pictures of my new workplace at school (St John's Institution).
Fancy name for a large room with computers. Nothing 'smart' about it. Got a better comp at home.
Yeaps, me there, in all my nerdy glory, inclusive of thick glasses, apparently plugging away at notes for my students (had to pose a bit in case the Vice P visits this blog).
My Office....big no?
Righto, thats done with my office....lets move on to something a little more interesting. My school is 103 years old. Naturally, as with all old schools, especially the mission ones....you have the usual dose of hauntings and such. So, here are the top ghost stories bout SJI.
Madam Lai Choy's Picture. Her son is one of the benefactors of the Science Block (past the iron gates). Her facial expression in the picture supposedly changes during every thunderstorm. When I was in the afternoon session (forms 1 and 2), this landing gets very dark around 6 during storms. My friends have claimed that during lightning flashes, the picture actually smiles benevolently. Never seen it myself.
The old chapel in the main block. Supposedly is haunted by the ghost of an old nun. Seen by the cleaners late in the evenings. This has never stopped me from visiting the chapel a lot though. Love the stained glass windows and the comfy chairs here.
The haunted stairway near the chapel. The door there leads to the VIP toilet. A child was apparently murdered in that toilet and its spirit is said to haunt this place. I don't know of anyone whom has actually seen anything here. However, its spooky alright when you're here all alone late in the evenings or early mornings. The stairway continues upwards to the Brother's TV room. That sure is one nice place. Fully carpeted it seems (my brother claims it is). The stairway leading to it is very spooky though. Its perpetually dark, and you ALWAYS get this weird feeling whenever you wander up there alone. I've tried it once. Its all just psychology though, feelings that just assail you after listening too all the spooky stories about this place. The hairs on my neck always rise when i go up there. Felt weird when i stood here for a full 5 minutes photographing the place all alone after the morning staff had all gone home.
The school field. The scouts have this famous story about it. During World War 2, my school was used as a Japanese army base while the nearby Convent Bukit Nanas served as an army hospital. This is a fact though. The field was supposedly used as a marching ground by the Japs. The story goes that, early in the mornings, if you were to walk to the middel fo the field and listen closely, you could hear the loud thumps of marching soldiers, and sometimes even see dark shapes of people moving about. Now, after telling this story to the juniors, the scouts have this camp out at the scout den, and early in the mornings, send the juniors one by one into the school's most haunted places..one of them being the middle of the school field, which will be dimly lit by the nearby street lights. Its quite a harrowing experience.
The Form 6 Block. Plays host to the school's badminton and squash courts as well as the library. Has a lot of "haunted" places. The library is one. Librarians arriving early in the mornings to open it up have heard noises such as footsteps and the sound of moving chairs as well has seen dark shapes moving about inside it......even though the doors are locked and bolted from the outside. Librarians working alone inside have seen books tumbling off shelves by themselves...whole rows of books..and its usually off the shelves right at the back of the library. The top floor of this block supposedly plays host to a Langsuir ( female vampire..is said to be a violent spirit worse than a pontianak). I'm not very sure about this story though.....have been up there alone many times and have never seen anything. The toilets here are said to be haunted as well......by a male teacher whom was murdered here......this story is very doubtful too. But by far, the scariest place here has got to be the Kemahiran Hidup Labs located in the basement of the block. I know this KH teacher well.....and when she was down there early in the morning one day (around 5.30 am) to prepare materials for projects..she claims to have seen a figure walking the rooms through the windows, despite the place being locked from the outside. She too claims to have heard someone call her name late in the evenings at 7.00 pm after her students have all left. One reason she always asks her pupils to remain with her until she has locked up the place and then leave together with them.
The junior prefect's room. Its like a dungeon in there. As a general rule..no prefect likes to remain inside the place alone. I'm talking about the form 1 and 2 prefects..we seniors have our own air-conditioned cheerful room in the Form 5 block....with its own ghost story. Neways....i don't really know any stories about this room. Its just spooky in there.
The famous main corridor in the main block. The doors lead to the Form 3 classrooms. This corridor was featured in a Coca Cola ad a few years ago. On to the hauntings now. The ghost of an old Christian Brother (before our latest headmaster....all headmasters were Christian Brothers). The ghost is that of Brother Cornelius after whom a sports house is named ( Cornelius Sports House....official colour is Red). The walls of the corridor is lined with photos of old headmasters......and at night..it is said that the photos move. This is the story that is fed to us by the scout seniors, before they make us walk this corridor all alone at 2.00 am.
The school hall backstage. Most johanians, if they ever have an 'experience'..its nearly always here. This is one notorious place. My Form 5 class teacher was here one day last year, when she saw something at this spot(behind the backdrop). When asked what it was..she just shook her head and said...."adalah benda kat situ. Jika you berani, you pergi photograph tempat itu la". It was a challenge i couldn't resisit.....hence the photo here. A motivational speaker last year claimed to have felt a prescence here when he turned up early for a talk. His words to my Malay Language teacher were...."tempat itu ada benda cikgu. You jaga-jaga la". This photograph took me 10 minutes.....most of it to actually sum up the courage to walk inti the deserted dark hall and back into the darker backstage....and then to open up a window to let some light in for a quality photo. I didn't use flash here. I didn't have any experiences here though at this point.
The Bukit Nanas forest reserve. You can see the Scout Den nestled between the trees there. This is one old and haunted reserve. Stories of haunted paths, trees, stairs and what not. I'll try to go into that place one friday afternoon after work to photograph all the haunted paths and places and trees in there. That's another post ppl....well one last picture before we wrap up:
The old scout den
Cheers Mates!
Yeah, we got an ego boost from climbing Mount FRIM
Group pic, 50m up in the air
Shern....overcoming his fear of heights
The Cameraman......in one of his rare moments without the DSLR
Gollum is in our midst
No trip is complete without our very own moral support
