This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Monday, January 29, 2007 |
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Today was a really weird day. But, YES! At least I've completed my Creative Arts Portoflio. It's over and done with. It's a concluded chapter of my life. The sense of relief of finally being able to not worry over it any more is just...satisfying. Wait, would the judges accept a blue file for my portfolio? Maybe their favorite colour is pink and not blue... D: Anyway, let's just brush those thoughts aside first and get down to what happened today. In the morning, the bus driver greeted us commuters with cheery "Good Morning!"s, but he only got blank stares and everyone dao-ed him. The same scenario repeated itself at every bus stop. So much for trying to brighten someone's day. And then, for the first time in secondary school history, hubert got seriously bonded. Seriously, as in not just playful slaps of backsides *glances at hubert suspiciously* or humping while fully-clothed, but as in seriously serious. I mean, 3 or 4 people got on top of him to try to remove his shirt, like how we torment zachary. And hubert was really furious after that and kicked ben for hiding his show somewhere (which ben didn't know the location of either.) And Ben was slightly pissed off by hubert's reaction. Finally, when walking past the TV at night, i saw Xian Bin (from 3O) in school uniform on Channel U, being interviewed by two local celebs. I paused in my step as i thought, "WTF?" But the scene was over in barely 10 seconds, during which he was referred to as "小弟弟" xD But that's all insignificant compared to the bus ride home. I was on bus 74 with ben, and we had just sat down at the back row of seats when this greying old man squeezed in between us. The first thing that struck us was his pong - he stunk of sweat and other unmentionable substances. He was clutching a Sunkist orange juice carton filled with water, and his appearance was rather haggard. The old uncle started rattling away in Chinese (the only words i could catch were "新年") and out of the blue, suddenly asked if we had $1. Ben didn't have small change, so being the kind person that i was, i thought this uncle here didn't have enough money to pay his bus fare or something, so i obliged. After slipping the coin into his pocket, he muttered some words (which i assumed meant "Thank You") before resuming his mindless banter again. A while later, Ben and i moved over to a vacated seat, not very comfortable with this foul stranger sitting between us. the air smelt like perfume then. After some obsevration, we realised that that uncle was actually going around chatting up other people on the bus, presumably to ask them for money. His modus operandi would be to grab a seat close to people who had just boarded, then start talking to them. We couldn't see or hear the conversation very clearly, but it looked like he would ask for small denominations of money. And then we realised: it was all a scam. But i must applaud the craftiness of the uncle to come up with such a con, dressing up to appear like a poor guy, then taking advantage of the sympathy and bulging wallets of Singaporeans to collect some free money. Then again, the uncle might be a real case of someone in poverty. But a poor guy would probably focus on making ends meet, not spending extra money taking bus rides all around Singapore. Heck, he probably wouldn't have enough money to spare for bus fares anyway. Besides, the way he acted on the bus didn't seem like he was that desperate for money after all. In the end, however, me (and all the other people he scammed too) didn't bother making any noise about it, for its not really worth spending the effort to kick us a big fuss over $1. Besides, no one wants to embarrass themselves in public. One might think such begging scams never happen with Singapore's track record of "low crime", but you'ld be surprised. Unfortunately, you're more often than not scammed first before you realise it. That's 5% of my weekly allowance wasted. Stupid untrustworthy uncle. |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:46 pm.
