Q23. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?

We are not an openly affectionate family; none of the kissing and hugging for us. Guess it’s just an Asian thing for someone of my parents’ and my generation. We are just more reserved by nature.

But we express our love in different ways. E.g. my mum will cook something that I want to eat when I’m back or boil soup for me. My dad will ask me what I want to eat and buy it from the hawker centre from me.

I don’t know if my childhood was happier than other people but I think I had a happy childhood. My sister and I always had a roof over our heads, always had enough to eat and our parents took us on holidays every year. I also enjoyed our frequent trips to the library to borrow books. This was at the old National Library which has sadly since been torn down. A trip to the library to borrow new books was always fun and I guess it’s where my love for books and words began.