I think I'm blogging too much, and it has become meaningless, especially when I have nothing much to say about anything. Except for my mundane life, of course, but what's the point.
Anyway, here I am again, rambling trifles.
Saturday: Woke up around 10 o'clock, after having slept around three plus in the morning. Time was spent on a new whim: audio books. For my virgin "listen", as opposes to "read", I thought I start with the classic Old Man and the Sea, read by Donald Sutherland. Donald's gruff voice was filled with worldly weariness, tainted with wry humour at the ironies that life and nature choose to present. Next up is a Chinese audio book, 活着, and Brave New World, another classic. We Singaporeans are a fortunate bunch, I must say. I have borrowed the audio books from the public library for only a yearly subscription fee of $21, while a foreigner residing in Singapore would need to pay $48.
I was out of the house by 12 noon, and heading for the library, when from afar, I saw the flashing lights of a stationary ambulance, right at the spot where the old lady with wavy white hair sit every morning. I widened my stride, and I could feel my heartbeat quicken.
Sometimes, on my way to work, I would pass her by, wondering if she had passed away in the chill of the night, or had just fallen asleep, such was her deep, motionless slumber. A rubbish collector, she picks up anything - from cardboards to plastic bags - that is worth selling to feed her frail, shrivelled body.
The paramedics had their medical equipments ready on the kerb as she sat on the concrete ground, busy as usual with her hands on some plastic bags and seemingly oblivious to all gathered. The doctor, a bespectacled young man standing with both hands on hips and a stethoscope around his neck, wore a bemused smile. That lifted something, that felt like a stone, from my heart.
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