Thursday, March 03, 2005
Mad woman from Macdonalds
Today I met a mad woman on the train again. Now please bear with me for I need to go back into time and relive my past 2 encounters with the same, mad, woman.
If I can still effectively recall, I was on the train on the way home with shay when we stopped at Bedok and this woman in a Macdonald's uniform got in. I believe that at that time, the school had no relocated to Siglap so I was home from Kallang. I never expected something that extraordinary on that journey home, thus you can say that I got a rather pleasant and a rather mad surprise when this old woman started talking about the government at the top of her voice to everyone in the train.
Pardon my rusty memory but all I can recall is that she was criticising the government. Besides addressing the public, I vaguely recall that she did turn to us to ask a couple of questions. Not wanting to be in the centre of attention, I convieniently retreated to the other side of the train and kept a fair distance from her until I arrived at Simei which was a good route of escape.
The years rolled along slowly by and I had forgotten about her, until this very day when HEY! Its the mad woman again! How could I have forgotten? I frankly did not notice her until she addressed shay with another one of her "political questions" in mandarin. Translated, she asked: "Gambling at home and gambling at genting, is there a difference?" Being smart, shay said "no" for why should he start to give an explanation for a "yes?" Still, the best answer would have been to remain silent as the woman took up an argumentative stance and started babbling, still at the top of her voice so as to let everyone hear, about why gambling in those two different locations were different.
Since well shay was handling her, I just stood aside and waited for the woman to shut up. But based on experience, I knew that was impossible. I looked away, trying once again not to gain any of the attention that the woman was drawing from the public, yet I couldn't help taking in every word. She was on and about how your family could be influenced by you gambling at home and the neighbours coming in to gamble and affect your children. Somehow the conversation progressed to meeting gangsters and they stealing away your wives because they have money.
Trying to be civilised and allowing the public to have a good impression of me, I tried my best not to laugh. Her speech was ludicrous, rubbish, fiddlesticks, stuff and nonsense. I bit my tongue and tried not to allow this great batch of laughing gas within me burst out into a series of crazy laughter. I smiled and then I started to shake, mouth still closed and then my resistance broke and I covered my mouth with one hand and laughed while still trying to be civilised and calm about the whole thing. Not easy.
Her main point after all that crap talk, I believe, was that having a Casino in Singapore would benefit the society, though I have no idea why. Too busy laughing, I'm afraid. Thankfully the train pulled at a stop to Simei at last and I got out with the crowd, totally forgetting that I wasn't going home but Tampines. Crap. Hopefully I will never see her again, though sometimes it makes for a more interesting journey home. She is just like a radio, albeit a crappy radio spilling out even more nonsense then I am able to conjure in ten years. Interesting.
Posted by The Inflamed at 3:08 PM
