The Bangsar Boy: Swim swim The Swimming Instructor

This morning, mum told me: I remember the name already. It’s Thomas Chia.

Thomas Chia was the name of my childhood swimming instructor. Mum mentioned him because just a few days ago, as I was writing this article for today’s The Bangsar Boy, I asked my parents if they remembered his name. We were sure it was a Mr Chia, but couldn’t be sure so I left his name out.

I wanted his name so that I could share this story (I did anyhow):

I was very little then, but I do remember taking lessons from a swimming instructor who was great with us kids. He was very encouraging (all of us were “good” at something — I was the best at treading water in my class) and he was entertaining.

I remember that he’d make us work hard but would reward us with a show if we did well; he’d sink right down to the bottom of the pool and stay there for long periods of time. It was always a thrill for us kids.

I wrote about swimming for two reasons. One was to share with the readers about The Swimming Instructor, the play I am acting in which begins this Thursday, but also because I have been thinking a lot about swimming since I started rehearsing.

We – my fellow cast members Davina Goh and Michael Chen, as well as director Chris Ling and stage manager Michelle Yip – spent quite a bit of time talking to each other about our swimming memories.

However, I actually didn’t realise how many public pools I have swam at in my life until i wrote this article. I always thought of it from a membership club perspective – as kids, dad had a membership to Holiday Villa (yes, the hotel in Subang) and as I entered my teens, we became members of Lake Club. Today, I’m a member myself.

But besides the Bangsar Sports Complex in, er, Bangsar, and Kelab Syabas in PJ I mentioned in the article, I also remember swimming at Chinwoo Swimming Pool in KL.

My most vivid memory of that place was getting chased out. You see, back then, I had trunks which were more like shorts than “speedo-like”. So they weren’t skin hugging. But they were proper swimwear, just not something people are very familiar with so I wasn’t allowed to swim that one day. That might have been the first time I encountered narrow-minded people who had no space in their lives for flexibility.

Anyway, I share some of my swimming memories (including a water polo game where I thought I was going to drown!) in the article. You can click here to read it.

While we’re on the subject of the Swimming Instructor, I was on the NTV7 Breakfast Show yesterday with Chris to promote the show. The hosts for yesterday were Naz and Daphne, so it was good to see friends again. Naz also hosted me on the show  last year for A Christmas Carol.

Click on the picture below to watch the video. They won’t let us embed the video so you’ve got to visit the link to see the video of it. Our slot is in Part 4 so look out for it!

Hope to see you at the show next week! Booking and timing details here.

1.26pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tags: bangsar sports complex, candid photography, chinwoo swimming pool, chris ling, Daphne Iking, davina goh, holiday villa subang, kelab syabas, klpac, lake club, michael chen, michelle yip, naz, nazrudin rahman, Niki Cheong, ntv7, star metro, sun paradise, The Bangsar Boy, the breakfast show, The Star, the swimming instructor