creep

After 6 years working in a job that I love, I'll be posted out real soon. I took some leave not to travel overseas but to catch up with some old friends and hobbies.

The lipstick pink electric was rusty and needed restringing. I went to a guitar shop near my place called EBENEX. The guitar technician used to be with YAMAHA. There was no conscious decision to use him. It was only after he set it up and told me that his name was Beez and used to be with YAMAHA, that everything clicked. He was the guy who sold the guitar to me in 94. It was my 21st birthday present from my father who stood outside the combi shop disapproving of the purchase but buying it anyway.

It was coming back full circle 13 years later.

I've been a but queasy about starting in a new work place. Adjusting to the new job will only add to the white hairs on your head. Is it too melodramatic to contemplate the end of life even before the new job has begun?

In the meantime, I'm driving everyone nuts squacking along to a very bad cover of Creep by Radiohead whose lyrics have more emo-resonance in mid life than in yoof. I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. I don't belong here.

where the sidewalk ends

The rains came at night washing away all traces of the fun we had today.

I opened the box of sidewalk chalk bought several years ago before the crayolas arrived. I left them in my office and forgot about them, only discovering them recently when I was clearing my office.

This was the right time. The backlane at our home got recently repaved. Time to deface some public property with my street gang!

Jellyfish

Crab

?

Living in Joo Chiat long enough, you notice that there are a lot of bicycles. These are not the latest flash mountain bikes or racers. They are usually left exposed to the rain, chained to a lampost, tree or railing.

These made in China steel work horses are serious modes of transportation, ridden by ah jeks, aunties and foreign workers who have to make their way to market, mrt, beach and Parkway. Seeing how they are used, I want to get one too. There is no need for COE, petrol, parking or maintenance. There is something liberating about chucking them anywhere and so far, I haven't seen the authorities booking them.

Like this.
It was time to get my own ah jek bike. I wasn't willing to spend much for something that could be stolen if I left it out. I fully intend to leave it out in the open chained to a lampost exposed to the sun and rain. But I needed one with a basket. The basket you see, is essential storage for the bicycle chain.

I asked the bike shop guy if he would sell it to me second hand. I wanted something cheap so that I wouldn't fear theft. Best of all, it had that Joo Chiat flavour. Left in the sun. Rusty and probably stolen off someone else. It cost me 45 dollars including installation of a brand new basket. I rode it the wanton mee shop where I would previously have to walk or parallel park and left it on the pavement. As I ate my wanton mee, I saw construction workers sitting opposite checking out the bike.

Yes, that's my bike. Its been on the road and its more beaten than yours. D'you have a problem with that?

I'd stay awake

Gary got badly injured while playing football on the first day of June so he hasn't worked the past month. Which means he hasn't flown a plane to a far away country which operates 12 hours behind Singapore. I am so used to our time zones being separated, it is weird and wonderful to experience him sleeping when the sun goes down. Usually, he is sleepless when I fall asleep. And when he's asleep, I'm awake or at work because by golly, the sun is out!

I had forgotten what it is like to have a man asleep next to me at night. I don't want to miss a thing. Ironically, I'd stay awake just to hear him breathing/snore (Aerosmith).

After four weeks of getting used to this, I'll miss that when he flies out this Sunday.