The String-Puller Extraordinaire

Tuesday 26th August 2025

Yesterday, I blogged that 3 women have played a very significant role in my life, and have given them the terms of endearment, ESP, EPS and PSP.

Let's kick off with the woman I term "EPS", and whose official name is Tay Siew Hong.

People refer to as "Lilian" or "Lily", but only those who relate to her on a personal and intimate level refer to her as "Mummy" and later on, "Mom".

I was quite the naughty and mischievous child, and as a result, had on several occasions rightly been on the receiving end of dad's rod of discipline.

Mom, on the other hand, never raised a finger on me.  In fact, I recall a couple of times when she would plead with Dad to stop with tears in her eyes, "Mike, Mike, ok enough".

While Dad's way of dealing with us kids was to use the rod, Mom had a much better way: guilt trips, which in my humble opinion, was far more effective. 

But her trump card was, "Don't argue with your mother. I gave birth to you."

Mom played a significant role throughout my entire life.

As the wife of a Methodist Church senior leader, she had developed connections every which way there was to have, and mastered the art of string-pulling, hence the term of endearment "String-Puller Extraordinaire".

I would like to list down the following major events in chronological order:

1979: Mom went to see Ernest Lau, the then principal, to appeal for me to get into ACS Secondary.  She succeeded. (By the way, I was in ACJS in Primary 1 due to Dad being an old boy. But he transferred me to St. Andrew's Junior in Primary 2 because it was nearer to home, and his chauffeur used to send us to and from school.  All along though, I yearned for the day I could return, and thankfully did well enough in my PSLE to get back in). 

1980-1983: I could sense Dad's high expectations of me to do well in my studies so that I could one day "take over" his clinic. So whenever I did well in a particular term, I would get him to sign my Report Card.  But Mom was always there for me to sign the Card whenever I did not. 

Here are my results from Sec 1 to Sec 4.

Sec 1E: Although I was a Top-Eight-Percenter, I was placed in 1E because I was an "appeal" case.  I did relatively well to get into 2D, being 144th in Standard.  Notice that Dad signed my Card for all terms.

Sec 2D: Did relatively badly, dropping to 191st in Standard, thus missing out on the Pure Sciences by 31 places. Mom signed my Card throughout.

Mom went to see Ernest Lau again to try to appeal for me to get into a Pure Science class.  Her argument was that I had done well in the relevant subjects like Maths and Science, and it was the non-relevant subjects such as Art, History and Geography that had pulled my overall grades down. Alas, Ernest told her that every boy in my cohort was graded on all subjects, not just me. And with that, my Dad's dream of handing over his clinic to me came to an abrupt and bitter end.

Sec 3E: Being the big fish in a small pond, as it were, I did exceptionally well, topping the class and being placed 26th in Standard (good enough to get into 4A actually haha).  Dad signed my Card throughout.

Sec 4E: Because I did not study Biology, Physics or Chemistry, I had to remain in a Sub-Science class. Dad signed my Card in Terms 1 and 2, but I got Mom to sign my Card in Term 4 because my form teacher, James Tan, gave me a negative Conduct rating.

Now let's get back to Mom and her extraordinary string-pulling skills.

The best example was what happened in March of 1984.  I had spent the 1st three months in NJC (based on my prelims of 9 points) and appealed to get into ACJC (based on my O results of 7 points). Yet, Wan Fook Weng, the then-principal, gave me a hard time, telling me, "Why ACS boy never put ACJC as first choice?"  I went home and complained to my mom. All it took was one phone call from her to Robert Iau, the then-Chairman of ACS Board of Governors and my life in ACJC was transformed into that of an untouchable white horse.

What I understood to happen was that Robert Iau called Wan Fook Weng to ask him why he did not accept an ACS boy into ACJC. Mr Wan knew better than to offend someone who could decide if he remained as Principal or otherwise, and the rest as they say, is history.

I wore tinted specs, bleached my hair, kept a ducktail, tapered my pants, skipped numerous civics classes, played truant to watch a movie with 80 others, and even vandalised one of the lecture theatre's desk with white correction fluid.

Yet, not a single discipline master, be it Mr Yip, Mr Quek or Mr Amarjeet Singh dared do anything to me.

Mom, you are the best!!!

A girl once ever told me that I loved hiding under my mother's skirt.  She was absolutely right haha.

I shall continue with this tribute to my mom, the ESP tomorrow, so stay tuned!  

As a teaser, here is the outline of tomorrow's post

1986: Noel hampers, BMT, peanut butter, coin-a-phone, recorded Smurfs

1987: Girl asked if I had to choose between mom and her / accuses me of hiding under mom's skirt

1988: Mom told off my room mate!!!

1989/1990: Mom made phone calls to Mr Ling Sing Wong, the then-Registrar of the then-NTI

1991: Mom asked Dad to add an extra room so that I could continue to stay with them after getting married

1994-1997: Mom gave me her car to use in SICC and to attend MBA classes