Early Halloween scare

It's Halloween tomorrow but ZK decided to scare me one day earlier.

I was about to change him this morning when I noticed a slightly raised red bump the size of a xiaolongbao on his inner right thigh. As I started to exclaim about it, I undid his diaper and saw something far worse - the tip of his penis was swollen and looking translucent with fluid inside!! And there were raised red strips along the creases of his thigh joints and more red bumps on both butt cheeks.

The lucky thing was that he didn't seem uncomfortable, although he was hitting at his diaper just before that. But he used to do that all the time just a few weeks back so I didn't think much about it.

Y said it looked like some allergy. I was also worried if he were bitten somewhere but Y said the bed looked normal. In any case, I was on his bed most of last night so if it were some insect, I would have got it too.

Come to think of it, he didn't sleep well last night. For the first time in many many weeks, he needed me to hold him to sleep. And when he woke in the middle of the night, he also needed me to hold him before he would sleep. I thought it was his drippy nose but now I wonder if it was the rash starting already...

I was quite worried and googled madly while he was sitting through his DVD flashcard session. Nothing. He was behaving normally so in the end, I just let go and tried to do some work with him on my lap and trying to reach the keyboard, cos he refused to stay away until it was almost time to go to the clinic.

By the time we saw the doctor, it was three hours after the scare, and his penis was looking almost normal although the red strips were still there. The bump on his thigh had spread out into a patch the size of a credit card. There were also other smaller patches on him.

Doc said it was probably some allergy. But I wonder what he could be allergic to. He had nothing new at home. Even the dried scallops that we recently started to use at home were not new to him as Mum had always used it for his porridge. I texted one of his teachers to ask and she said he had his usual lunch.

Anyway, she gave him an oral anti-histamine and a cortisone cream for the rash. We forced the anti-histamine down his throat after a late breakfast at home, changed him and applied the cream while holding down a screaming and squirmy toddler. He was so tired that he fell asleep very quickly once I put him on his bed; he didn't even roll!

I managed to squeeze in more work in his 1.5 hour of nap, washed up and got ready for work - lots of things at work lately cos 生意做大了！He woke just as lunch was ready - what good timing... We didn't make porridge for him but he was interested in my rice, onion eggs and caixin so he had some for lunch. And an hour later, he had more food in school - probably cos he saw other kids eating *.* And another hour later, he still managed to finish a lot of milk before his afternoon nap! Now, that's scary too!

Anyway, I'm glad that the only rashes on him just now were on his legs, torso and butt cheeks. Hope my baby will be all good by tmr morning!

TMI post

Meant to blog last night but I got too ill - yes, I caught the bug from ZK! :(

I brought my laptop home when I returned from office to fetch ZK on Monday. Then I left for office without it on Tuesday!! Ended up returning to work from home. Just as well cos I started feeling ill after lunch. Just past 6 pm, I had diarrhoea and puked my lunch out while on the throne - luckily Y left the mop pail in the toilet to dry off!

Had Y fetch ZK on her own for the first time. I went to bed at 8.30 pm without dinner. Sito called me at 10-ish but I couldn't bring myself up to the laptop to Skype :( It wasn't until 2 am when I started feeling better.

But my stomach remained in a slight knot in the morning so I stayed home. After sending ZK to IFC, I did a bit of work and took a nap until 1 pm. I thought I should have lunch even though I wasn't hungry since I did not have breakfast. But I was wrong. Felt so ill again after lunch!

Nua-ed in bed until 4 pm or so when I started feeling better again, good enough to go fetch ZK. Felt a bit ill along the way again but oh well, better than earlier.. Y made guava juice and a ginger drink that I had for dinner just now; they were supposed to help me feel better. Hope to go to work tmr..

Anyway, these two days, I've been shedding like a snake!



Last Tuesday, I put on this foot mask for four nights in a row - just an hour or so each time - and over the weekend, I started noticing some peeling.

This morning, when sending ZK to IFC, I kept feeling something funny on my left sole. I returned home to find that the skin at the middle of my sole had separated from my foot! If the picture above is not clear, how about this:



I started peeling :p

I know we're not supposed to peel dry skin off. But this is meant to be peeled off cos it's already separated from the rest of the skin!

And I peeled off more than the sole. I found that the skin around the toes were also coming loose so I gave it a rub and they came off!

When I peeled off all loose bits and was satisfied, I walked out from my bedroom to the kitchen to throw out a pile of peeled skin - and was surprised to find the tiles cold on my fresh new skin!

My soles started to become this dry after we returned from the US last year. Perhaps it was nature trying to give me extra protection post-delivery? Anyway, I decided to wear socks to keep out the cold.

Later this afternoon, I took off the socks and found more separated skin! So I started peeling again, and this time, I remembered to take a picture of the pile of peeled skin - yucks! Haha! (Finger for sizing!)



There's still more dry skin which I think should become separated tomorrow. The really dry and hardened part still remains hard after the skin peeled off but I'm very happy already - it's $25 welll spent!

Here's a picture of the difference in dry and fresh skin - my dry skin is not just dry, it's also dirty!!



I resolve to apply moisturiser diligently after this treatment. LS, I will use the image of you moisturising your legs back in Teddy Hall as my motivation to always remember to apply moisturiser!!!

Extended weekend

A bit late but well, here goes!

Sent him to IFC so that I could sleep in. And he stared intently at the lift display while waiting for the lift.



Came home to play with Papa's water bottle - he had always liked playing with it, bringing it across the room and dropping it somewhere. This time, Papa finished the water and left the cap open for him. He managed to close it! Also kept pointing at his nose and stuck his tongue out once :p



After a nap, he decided to be pensive at the bay window...



We put a shirt on him and left for town - don't they both look beng beng here? :p



Took off the shirt to shave his head - he was getting it done in a car! Big boy didn't need to be held now :)



Pretty Auntie was very nice to him. The vacuum thing was spoilt so she offered to wash him down since it wasn't crowded - what a privilege when our membership has already expired!

I think next time, we should just strip him totally *.*

We put the shirt on and he continued to charmed girls - jiejie looked very busy here but she (and her friend) lifted her head to smile at him.



He wasn't that charming during dinner though... There was rice everywhere!! He's at the stage when he can't feed himself but he's not sitting still to let us feed him either. Specifically, he MUST play with a spoon and a bowl. And if he has already seen a bowl full of food, an empty bowl wouldn't do. Just now during dinner, porridge was everywhere - on his bib, his tray, my pants, the floor and even the top of his head! Lucky this stage coincided with Y's arrival else it would be hell for me every night... But good and bad la. Like Sunday, he wanted the yogurt tub and fed me too :)

Eating bread is less messy. But he's not sitting still too, especially when there's no restrain. We went to Provence cafe for breakfast on Sunday. They do not have baby chairs. But hey, our baby can sit on a chair by himself already! Although he almost fell twice, oops... He kept standing up and turning around to disturb the uncle behind us too... Trying to charm uncles too, baby??

The wassants weren't ready so I ordered a crossant sandwich, hoping he would have some of it. I hoped wrong. He preferred Y's toast so Y kept setting aside bread for him. This is one of his poses that morning. Oh ya, I kept him in his long PJs so that he could run along and get dirty and I could just change him into clean clothes for his morning nap :p



But before he napped, he must play with the clock, the clock that is now quite ready for the bin *.* Speaking of the bin, we have moved it to the kitchen for food waste so there's now this gap between the bedside table and the bay window - he loves such gaps!!



I let him watch his Chinese DVD flashcards at the desk on Sunday morning, with the chair pulled all the way back to lengthen the distance to the screen and to prevent him from reaching for the laptop. Took these on Monday though - so fun to watch him stare so intently at the flashcards!



站？I think I can do that...



Is that a ball? I waaaant!



笑？Like this?



Btw, that was the PJs he dirtied at the IFC gate on Monday!

First time I saw him nap like this at the IFC. I barely took this photo and he lifted his head - scary that he could sense me?!



Playing before his afternoon nap. He hasn't done this for a long time.



Pulled on his pants that he wore back from IFC to go downstairs for a walk, hence this horrid funky look.

Mama, my top and pants DON'T go. Any more clothes in your bag?



No? Fine, I'll just concentrate on my wassant.



Actually, I haven't spent a day with ZK like this for a while. I'd rather not cos it means he's ill! But this time, it was quite relaxing. Guess it's really different when the house is always clean and I can just focus on my baby! :)

Poooooo!

ZK has his first diarrhoea this morning. He's had watery stools before but not consistently watery - and stinky - like this. Sian. But not bad already - managed to last 15 months! Especially the second half of his life up to now when he's been crawling and falling and still eating his fingers..

Oh well, he is still very happy. Full of shit and still quite happy to wallow in it! This morning, he woke with a dirty diaper. Then, barely two hours later, he made a face while I was opening the gate to the centre. Then, nonchalance. When I pushed him inside and tried to pick him up from the stroller, I saw poop almost coming out of the front!! Best, only the kindy teacher was there and the IFC teacher has not arrived!! Thankfully, she arrived right behind me and took ZK over to change and shower, with him bawling the whole time. Yup, I've said he likes it poopy..

I was called back from office before 10 am - he had watery stools again. So we went to the PD whom we were supposed to see tmr for a vaccination, which is now obviously postponed. When I got the medicine, I couldn't help but feel it was a wasted trip - powder to be dissolved in water. I might as well just give him water cos he's not going to take the solution lor!

And I was right - he opened his mouth when I said "vitamins!" but everything came out when he realised that he had been tricked. And I couldn't even mix a drip into a mouthful of porridge! Sharp tongue, this one... He would have none of the soy formula samples from the clinic as well - cow formula would apparently make diarrhoea worse. So he had a wassant for his 4 pm feed. Then I remembered that wassant contained cream, i.e. from the moo moo. Ah well!

But his last poop was before his afternoon nap and it was no longer like in the morning. I'm hoping he will be good enough for school tomorrow.

Old memories

A number of things trigger some old memories lately...

1) All about ice cream

The other day, when I was bringing ZK home, a car drove by quickly on the other side of the road and splashed some water on this teenage girl who was having an ice cream cone. She looked at the car, looked at her legs, and looked at her ice cream - no big deal.

But that brought up an old memory, where I dropped my dollop of ice cream at the old fountain at Toa Payoh. I barely had a few licks - it was still round and big! And it was the one time I remember having such a big ice cream cone all by myself! I still remember it was corn but looked orange - maybe it was the light.

Of course, it didn't get replaced. I was left with only the cone. Is that why I don't really like the cone of an ice cream cone in my adult years??

Later in my teenage years when Children's Day was no longer a school holiday for us, I developed this habit of having ice cream on Children's Day. I think that started when my secondary school decided to distribute ice cream on Youth Day, even though I think that was not a school holiday for us.

In my fresher year, I had a lot of ice cream - I had a whole pint by myself at almost every movie. Needless to say, I piled on the pounds!

In more recent memories, when Sito was doing his internship in Chicago and I was alone in Evanston all the time, I had a lot of ice cream too. Cheap ice cream. I ate so much it was scary *.* But I guess it wasn't as much as the movie pint cos I didn't gain weight in Evanston. Before being pregnant with ZK, that is.

2) Loving our trains

Then last night, I was reading Remember Singapore after a hiatus - busy la! - and saw a post on the MRT. I thought of my first MRT ride in 1987 when the first stage of the first line - the NS line - was opened.

Memories are blurry now but I know it was a Sunday and we were at Grams' place as usual because I was with my cousins as well. It was a cool day and the kids were happy to be taken out to 坐地铁, whatever that meant.

I don't remember sitting on the seat, not because it was crowded but because I was on my knees looking out of the window and pointing excitedly to things I no longer remember!

We took the train from Braddell (probably, cos that's where Grams' place is) to Yio Chu Kang, for some strange reason - think an uncle lived there but I don't remember going there after the ride!

But we didn't take a lot of the MRT in those early days. We usually went places by bus. I think it was at the end of Primary Six in 1992 when I got my first TransitLink card, even though it was available since 1989. That was for my class trip to Pasir Ris beach, which I almost couldn't go for if CY's mum didn't call Mother to ask her to let me go!

In that same blog post, there's a picture of a projected MRT map for 2030. I wonder if I would be able to enjoy that. I would love to be able to do cross country on the MRT :)

3) Cross country

So I mentioned I'm taking part in the StanChart Ekiden this year...

Actually, I'm not the running sort. I hated cross country events back in school. In secondary school, after one year of doing the darn cross country, I would jump at any chance to do some duty even though it could be so boring and also tiring just standing at one spot the whole time. In JC, I think I only went one year - and SS and I sang and walked the whole way! We were the last ones back :p

So, ya... Wish me luck in December!

4) Kiddy rides and ti kam

These days, ZK has been pointing to this old kiddy ride downstairs every time we pass by. Sometimes, when we come from the opposite direction when the mamak shop is open and stuff are blocking his view of the kiddy ride, he would point to where he thinks it should be and turn to it as we pass by.



I used to love such kiddy rides. At 20 cents a pop, they weren't exactly cheap - 20 or 25 cents could buy a bus ride! I didn't get them a lot but I loved them.

Nowadays, there are lots of fancy rides in the malls. I've seen a large congregation of them outside Giant at Vivocity. So this one downstairs is really quite a relic already - just look at the super beat coin box!

And next to it is a ti kam machine. I loved them too :) I got toys when I was a kid. In my early teens, I spent a lot of my pathetic pocket money on those darn 偶像卡, hoping to land a 金卡 or 闪卡 or whatever you call them. So silly now that I think about it. But well, kids don't know better!

ZK is 15 months!

Old enough to finally made the first move? :)



Went to CW's place two weeks ago for lunch. V-jiejie was asleep while ZK ransacked her stash. Then they met - the first time in many months. Yes, the last time they met, they were barely standing!

He even upgraded from picture books to 唐诗 *proud Mama*



And last Saturday, we went to Kel's new place for the first time - it's so far in Simei!! ZK dozed off on the way there...



.. but promptly woke just before reaching Kel's place! He was at first shy, then he started his usual - remote control, power plugs, and he found an umbrella smaller than the one at home..



There wasn't much interaction with the other three kids around, speaking of which, our KLK gathering is fast becoming has become a playdate!

I managed to carry Moh's two-month-old boy for a while - soft little baby! - before ZK discovered my betrayal and started whining. I still love you the most, my baby :)

Also met SY and her Nat, who still didn't like us too much *.* And heavily pregnant WX! Welcome to the club :) Not to forget our last bachelor Kok whom we think may not be a bachelor in the very foreseeable future :p

We celebrated Kel's birthday one week in advance. D managed to sneak a cake home without him knowing! When was the last time we celebrated one of our birthdays?! Really, we're getting old.. We would next be celebrating our kids' birthdays, ONLY.

Kok gave us a lift to Telok Blangah and ZK fell asleep on the way...



Not for long!



Met Mother et al for dim sum at Red Star the next day to celebrate her 66th birthday! ZK refused to let her carry at first but he got distracted by the candle :p

Didn't I see something similar yesterday?


Source: MZ or YQ


Source: MZ

On the way to Chinatown MRT station, we stopped at this playground where ZK had lots of fun!

So handsome :) (But Mama is making a funny face behind. Oh wait, that's just me talking *.*)


Source: MZ or YQ

Happy face!


Source: MZ or YQ

Another happy face! I like!


Source: MZ or YQ

And the happiest of them all...


Source: MZ or YQ

Now, the LI KUA SI MI face...

I'm only having my wassant. M.I.N.E



Tuesday was Hari Raya Haji. We had dim sum (again!) at Wah Lok where ZK again finished a whole bowl of porridge by himself :) Then we took a little excursion to JEM and let him loose.

I want that..



And that..



(He didn't poke at glass all the time; once, he walked right into it cos there was no display behind!!)

Fine, I'll have this! Papa, please pay!



Also let him drive..



ZK seems to love food but these days he has been quite picky and eats according to his mood.. Nonetheless, he's still very cute at the dining table. And I love to see him from this angle:



This angle too :p



He just had a poop when I got there so he had to be washed. Hope he doesn't mind me baring his little ass online ^.^ Or he can claim it's not him since it's a back-facing shot :p

End with a scary shot of Mama! :p That was me looking down at my phone just as he fell asleep - took this picture on my phone at that point.



We really like the camera - nowadays, I can look at him anytime I want without going in to disturb him. And when he whines, I can take a peek - if he is sitting up or starting to crawl off or he's not there (meaning he's at the door!), I'll pop over. Oh, and we've added a stand so that we can see more of the bed - and him when he's at the far side. Going to see him now :)

My sayang

ZK loves my Meh Meh! He pointed to my little stash in the cabinet, comprising Zo-san, Meh Meh and ZK's toy from IFC which he didn't like (but I do!) - I didn't give him the first time but subsequently, I lifted him up to let him pull something out and he chose Meh Meh.

This morning, he sayang-ed Meh Meh. Really, he would stroke her head or belly or somewhere gently, like how we sayang him! He even decided to nap with her in his arms. Very sweet :)



Later, he started biting her *.*

And later, he grabbed both Ding Dang and Meh Meh. He was sooo happy! I was sooo happy too to see this cute scene!



Last weekend, he was already sayang-ing DD. I tried to capture that in a video but he wasn't cooperative..



When we went for a stroll in the MRT station - cos it was safe to let him run about and I just practised eye power -, he saw this boy around his age and went up to sayang his head! I've seen him done that to Riley in IFC but I didn't expect he would do that to a stranger.

He would sayang me too, on the cheeks, but usually that quickly becomes rapid slaps *.*

Anyway, he missed his afternoon nap for the first time in ages as we were out quite a bit, and so he went down quite quickly just now - holding on to Meh Meh of course. When I first thought he was asleep, I switched Meh Meh with his bolster. He felt it, rolled away and sat up. He looked around. Sighs.. I put Meh Meh in front of him and he dropped onto her. He eventually fell asleep hugging her tight. I had to pry her away and gently replace it with his bolster.

IT'S MINE, IT'S MINE!

And I was also afraid that Meh Meh would get drool all over her and smell like, well, his bolster *.*

My memory's failing me..

This article says that deep sleep is when the brain moves memories from short-term storage to long-term storage. Not enough deep sleep? Well then, these memories will be lost.

That explains why I can no longer remember the details of ZK's early days! Some days these days, I would think of those days when I was alone at home with ZK but I could not for the life of me remember how the days were spent.

It must be yet another of nature's wonderful ways - so that human beings would not remember the painful early days and would go on and have more children to ensure the survival of their own kind!

*.*

But ok la, I think it wasn't that bad la.. But I *think* only; I cannot confirm cos I don't remember :)

And I'm just glad that I have this blog to help me remember things when this brain fails me.

Anyway, the past two weeks have been kind. Even though he can wake up quite early at 5 plus, ZK has been sleeping through from 8.30 pm for roughly half the week. Coupled with Y's arrival to take housework off me, I've never felt so rested in the past 15 months! Actually 16 months, what with all that moving before ZK arrived...

In other news, ZK seemed to be able to match "papa" to Papa. On the way home just now, I told him Papa was home these two days and he went "papa" - oh, I'm jealous! :p Yesterday, he showed that he could climb - onto his toy box to reach a night light on the bench, onto the sofa to reach the remote control at the top. He must be thinking I'm getting fat and want me to exercise more by chasing after him *.*

Oh, and speaking of exercising, ahem - I've signed up for 2013 StanChart Ekiden!!! Wish me luck haha!

Nursery rhymes of my childhood

I have been thinking of them for a long time and I finally had time to write about them!

月光光，照地堂，年卅晚，摘檳榔，檳榔香...

That was all I remember, and using them, I found the full version:

《月光光》
月光光，照地堂，年卅晚，摘檳榔，
檳榔香，摘子姜，子姜辣，買芙薘，
芙薘苦，買豬肚，豬肚肥，買牛皮，
牛皮薄，買菱角，菱角尖，買馬鞭，
馬鞭長，起屋梁，屋梁高，買張刀，
刀切菜，買籮蓋，籮蓋圓，買隻船，
船沉底，浸死兩個番鬼仔，一個浮頭，一個沉底！

But this version is not very kid-friendly with all that killing talk so I found only one operatic version.

This is not the version I heard as a child but I thought it's quite sweet :)

《月光光》
月光光，照地堂，蝦仔你乖乖瞓落床。
聽朝阿媽要趕插秧咯，阿爺睇牛佢上山崗，啊。
蝦仔你快高長大咯，幫手阿爺去睇牛羊，啊。

月光光，照地堂，蝦仔你乖乖瞓落床。
聽朝阿爸要捕魚蝦咯，阿嫲織網要織到天光，啊。
蝦仔你快高長大咯，划艇撒網就更在行。

月光光，照地堂，年三十晚，摘檳榔，
五穀豐收堆滿倉囉，老老嫩嫩喜喜洋洋，啊……
蝦仔你快啲眯埋眼囉，一覺瞓到大天光，啊……



Next up, 《天黑黑》! No no, not Stefanie's Sun pop version but this:

天黑黑 欲落雨 阿公仔舉鋤頭欲掘芋
掘啊掘 掘啊掘 掘著一尾旋鰡鼓
咿呀嘿嘟真正趣味
天黑黑 欲落雨 阿公仔舉鋤頭欲掘芋
掘啊掘 掘啊掘 掘著一尾旋鰡鼓
咿呀嘿嘟真正趣味
阿公仔要煮鹹 阿媽仔要煮淡
二個相打弄破鼎
咿呀嘿都啷噹叱噹嗆　
哇哈哈
阿公仔要煮鹹 阿媽仔要煮淡
阿公仔要煮鹹 阿媽仔要煮淡
二個相打弄破鼎 弄破鼎 弄破鼎
咿呀嘿都啷噹叱噹嗆　
哇哈哈 哇哈哈 哇哈哈

（天黑黑，要下雨，阿公拿鋤頭去掘芋頭。不料，挖到泥鰍（旋鰡鼓）。 阿公要吃鹹一點，阿嬤喜歡清淡一點的。 兩人大打出手，把鼎打破了，非常有趣。）

And Teresa Teng sang it in 1971!



Then of course there are all the other nursery rhymes that people are still singing today - English and Mandarin ones should be easier to perpetuate through the generations. Here are some of my faves:

This has two of my faves - 《踏雪寻梅》 and 《去郊游》! Though I never knew the title of the second one..



I like 《掀起你的盖头来》 but the other two songs in this video are very nice too:



Ok, I like too many! It's a rabbit hole!! Let me just end with this Japanese one because I'd really like to 空を自由に飛びたいな! :)



Just discovered that it's simply called Doraemon's Song!

ZK the sponge

ZK seems to be able to understand a lot even though he could not say as many words.

Just now, I asked him to go get his pacifier which he had left on the bench next to the big ball. He turned, stood still for a while, and walked towards the bench. For a moment, I wondered what he would pick up - the ball or the pacifier... The little boy took the pacifier! And promptly stuffed it into his mouth before I whisked his little body into his bedroom :)

This morning, he woke at 5.30 am. I put him down and fell asleep on his bed. Some time later, I was woken up by something heavy dropping on my neck and right shoulder - it was his head! I asked if he didn't want to sleep anymore and he shook his head, and whined enough to make me bring him to the living room. (Door was closed else he would have been long gone!)

But of course, it could have been his default "no". He shakes his head at everything now - when I offer water, when Y tried to bring him down from the stroller yesterday, and even when I offer food. But he would take the food after shaking his head, if said food is some kind of biscuit *.*

Oh ya, so Y has moved in for a week now. So far, so good. I'm happy to return to a clean home. And when I open my cabinets for my clothes, everything is neat and tidy. I get to have dinner at normal time. And I don't have to worry about ZK making a mess at dinner time cos by the time he falls asleep and I come out of his bedroom, what mess? :)

Anyway, back to ZK... He hasn't had the chance to play much with his toys at home in the past week as we were out a lot even during the weekends. But before this week, whenever he left his toys all over the place, I would tell him to put the toys back if he didn't want to play with them anymore, using a mix of words and gestures. Half the time, he picked up the toys and throw put them back into their containers! For those that he didn't pick up, I would but I added that I was only helping and that he would have to do it himself one day.

And since a long time ago, he could say uh-oh, and he could point to a ball and name it. In fact, he calls everything round "ball", like the pumpkin heads on display in Cold Storage *.* For many days now, he would point to big vehicles on the road. A bus! A van! A truck! Yes, my little boy is very boy :p

But he also knows flowers, ok... He asked for milk just now after rolling in bed before he slept - only his second time; first was on Monday - and specifically pointed to his bassinet where he usually has his morning milk. And while he was in his bassinet, I turned on the mobile and pointed out the snail and the FLOWER to him. No la, I didn't emphasise :) But the next thing I knew, he was pointing to the painting of sunflowers above the sofa and then to that of some pink flowers above the dining table! I haven't brought him to the paintings for a while but he obviously remembers :)

He's really a sponge - absorb everything until one day jialat jialat give back haha! But well, it's always a pleasant surprise, like the flower incident :)

mf being fierce on public transport

Remember my social experiments when I was pregnant with ZK? Well, I learnt more things on the train recently..

In recent months, I've been getting increasingly irritated by people who move slowly in the train stations - they're delaying me from getting to my baby! But if you're old or pregnant or physically challenged and so walk a little slowly, that's fine; I'll just be patient if I can't overtake you.

But guess why many people move slowly? Because their eyes are glued to their stupid phones! And no, it's usually nothing urgent. It's usually games. Really, they have to take "mobile games" literally?? Or worse, downloaded shows - cos not only are they blind, they are also deaf!

Two things happened recently.

Just yesterday, I was stuck behind this woman on the way to the escalator - there was no space for overtaking at that point. And she was looking down at her phone in her hands, walking s l o w l y . . . I decided to step up - and stepped onto her shoe from behind. Yes, I did it on purpose, and no, I never intended to apologise. But guess what? She turned and said sorry! Huh?! So, besides taking to moving slowly, people are also anyhow saying sorry these days?? Or are all those mobile games or constant sound feed from ear pieces confusing them too much??

A few weeks ago, I was squeezing into the middle of a train. An angmoh was standing there, holding a Kindle in one hand and grabbing the handle with the other. The gadget was taking the space of a person who could be standing just to his left and in front. So there was this obvious space in the middle of a crowded train. The guy was tall-ish so the Kindle was held high enough for me to slip under. (I wonder why no one shorter than me took up that space - I'm not exactly the shortest!) I ended up becoming his Kindle stand - he didn't move the damn thing away! I had to turn and told him to lift that higher. Oblivious idiot.

And I just remembered another incident on the way home today. The crowds poured in at Outram and we all shuffled further in. I ended up behind a teenager with a backpack who was chatting with his friend standing next to him. Now I really hate it when people don't put down a large backpack that takes up the space of a person. But this backpack was small so I didn't bother. But suddenly, this boy decided to lean back while holding on to the handle over his head. There was no space for me to back into so I told him to stop leaning back. Just what was he thinking?! Time for a stretch on the train?!

Actually, many people are really oblivious to their surroundings when they're glued to their gadgets. It's plain rude when they're with company. And it can be downright dangerous if they do that on the streets. Or if they meet people like me :p