Spring!

After three years of being planted, the African Tulip Tree in front of our house has finally begun to sprout its vermillion flowers. We were beginning to think that we were unfortunate enough to get an infertile one but turns out it was just a late bloomer.

While typing the above paragraph, I was suddenly reminded of how the colour vermillion was my favourite when I was in primary school. Back then, it was not enough to just have 12 or even 24 colour pencils. Many schoolgirls were clamouring to have their own set of 36 that came in a metal box with Japanese cartoon characters on it. And we used to have them all perfectly sharpened.

The other thing that was all the rage were those pencil cases with a million and one secret spring-loaded compartments triggered by buttons. Those cost a small fortune each. I never had one but used to find any excuse to play with those belonging to my lucky classmates. Gosh! How much money Sanrio made from us gullible consumers.

It's a good thing they're no longer a trend. Can't imagine my children carrying all that extra weight in their schoolbags!