Note: This is a freakishly long post about lots of stuff.

I believe I speak for everyone except the ah bengs and ah lians who love pink and express their liking for each other in horribly idiotic and act-cute ways, when I say that they're quite cringe-inducing. I had some random person view me on Friendster just now, and when I checked the person's profile to see if she was someone I knew, I got this in her shoutout:

"miissyybbabiipiinkelement# l0veees bbabii caTcaTtx miia0miia0oo =x me0wwx~ =.=* Zzz sshhZzz ... kuukuuluux =x :::ddawndawnn::: muaiii h3arTtx iishhzx menddx furhhhx sUm1 whuux karrex ferrx miiex tuux rec0verrx ..."

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT.

1) Nobody damn bloody well talks like that. I can't type like that even if I tried. It'd just come out fake. And nobody wants to be an ah lian, much less a fake one. Okay maybe not ah lian, just absolutely...ugh.

2) Why would anyone type like that? Is making things harder to read for people remotely interesting? It's not cute, not cool, and extremely excruciating. I don't understand.

3) To type such a long cryptic message is worthy of a pat on the back. With a ten foot pole covered with a glove at the end of it.


Anyway.


Today was rather eventful. Let's start off with what happened in the morning. I was SUPPOSED to meet the other officers at 9am over at Toa Payoh Mac's. I ended up meeting them at 10.15am because of some very valid reasons. I'll carry on by first saying I reached Toa Payoh at slightly before nine. There, nice and slow.

Okay. Then I went over to the Mac's at HDB Hub. They weren't there, so because I knew there were 2 Mac's at TP (there are actually THREE), I thought maybe it'd be the other one. So on the way to see if they were at the Mac's in front of TP Library, I got myself a prepaid card. I wanted to call them, and the inconvenience of not being able to message was unbearable already. Walked over to the other Macdonald's and ound nobody there. Which I found absolutely weird because it was already 9.20. Walked back to the HDB Hub one again, and still couldn't find them. Was feeling frustrated so I walked out into the bus interchange and decided to set up my phone and call them. Savvy so far?

I'd just slotted the prepaid card into my phone when suddenly this dishrevelled guy came up to me and asked me if I could spare him a few bucks for food in Chinese. When somebody just comes up to you like that and immediately asks you for money without saying anything else, well I said no. So this guy asks if he could borrow my phone for a phone call. I looked at the phone with the new card, looked at him and thought that it was all pretty screwed up. I didn't begrudge him the phone call and lent it to him at first because I thought it'd be a quick 20-second call. The call took 25 minutes. I'm serious.

But now let me explain why I'm not angry. I was rather pissed at first, because past the 2 minute mark he obviously had no regard that he was using somebody else's handphone, and this somebody was in a rush and using a new prepaid card for which calls were expensive. Proceeded to argue with his mother on the phone, I got more and more angry by the second. I could hear that he had lots of problems from everything he said, but still, what bullshit luck right?

At the ten-minute mark I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he could make it a little quicker. I think I'll mention that all throughout the 25 minutes he talked, he spoke rather loudly and gestured wildly with his hands when talking.

And then it occured to me after a while. Maybe God was the one who sent him to me. Let me explain.

Throughout his conversation I learnt some things about this man. He'd just been released from prison, where he spent the last three years. He'd spent some years in the mental hospital before that. He was angry with his mom because she told the judge stuff that apparently made it so long, and he didn't want to go home. He talked about getting treatment at IMH, and that he had the right not to go home, it wasn't against the law and his mother, or the police or government if she called them up couldn't do anything about it. He could bathe and settle things himself; he'd taken a bath already. He wouldn't go home, because he'd argue with her at home until there was the possibilty he'd kill her. He didn't want that. He mentioned something about a weapon that could kill. A wooden stick, that when filled with mercury could kill if it broke while hitting someone with it (not feasible in my opinion, but that doesn't matter). He told her to go to work. The judge that sentenced him, the police and anyone else couldn't make him go home because it wasn't against the law. His sentence was done, and he wasn't doing anything illegal. Told his mom to pretend as if he were still in mental hospital or prison where she wouldn't be afraid that he'd do anything. Said he wouldn't. His mom didn't believe him. And they argued about many things. And the clock ticked away. Frustration until that moment of realisation.

I think God sent him to me because. This was obviously a man who had a pretty shitty life. What if he went up to someone else to ask for that phone call? I'm not saying I'm some saint here. But maybe God knew that I wasn't the type of person to begrudge someone a phone call if he really needed it. And slowly that frustration gave way to acceptance. At the end of the phone call he told his mother he still wouldn't go home, but he would call her twice a day to show he wasn't getting into any trouble in society. At the end of the incident he gave me my phone back, muttered a thank you and turned to walk away. I called after him and gave him 2 bucks. It was the right thing to do, you see.

I gave someone in trouble an opportunity to lessen his problems slightly without doing much, and in return God taught me patience and greater sympathy, and created the chance for me to do actually do something about this sympathy. And thr more I think about it the more awesome it becomes. Killing two birds with one stone! More than fair exchange I suppose. Though it was rather expensive. The guy used up the 20 bucks of my card value. Haha. So I bought a top-up. And then realised there was actually another 20 bucks bonus value in the present card. Oh well.


Right anyway so I went for the meeting one hour plus late. I don't regret it though. And I had to leave early to meet Aaron and the others for lunch to commemorate my birthday. I can't say celebrate because it's been too long since my birthday already. Kuishinbo japanese buffet. Good food. Big bill. What more to say? Oh and thanks for the presents, guys. I've only received one of them cause the rest are with Eugene but it doesn't matter. Haha.

Was supposed to go for Wei-Lyn's church barbecue. Didn't in the end cause I was feeling tired and my mom called me up and asked why I wasn't back. I didn't tell her about the thing cause it's a Christian church and she's a bit against Christians cause of some misconceptions. But that's another story. I feel bad cause I said I'd go and in the end I didn't.

Yay I can finally start studying tomorrow!