Bisdak Babbles

I had almost three weeks Christmas vacation so I had quite some time catching up with what have been happening in the neighborhood. Before my highschool days, I often went around the neighborhood so I knew almost everyone. A lot has changed. More than a decade of spending most of my time away from my hometown, there are many new faces. Those who were way younger than me have already married. I could not recognize some because they have gained a lot of weight. Yet, I’ve heard some dramatic weight loss stories because of severe illnesses. Three weeks of staying in the place I called home, yet it’s not enough to catch up on everyone. Maybe it’s one of the reasons why we don’t get tired of trying to go home as often as we can.

Singapore might be a small country but two months of staying here is not enough for me to get familiar with even just the neighboring areas. Yesterday, my housemates and I went to a sports center. I went home ahead of them because I was supposed to meet a friend and I was running late. So, I took a taxi but it was pretty obvious that the taxi driver was not familiar with the area yet. He made a couple of U-turns and we had to stop for a while as he looked into his map.

Along the way, he asked me why I don’t know how to get home. To make the conversation short (and because I still find it so hard to understand Singlish), I said I just came here. He then asked me if I were staying with a friend. I told him I work here. After hearing that, I was surprised when he said, “Next time, don’t take taxi because it is very expensive. Take the bus. You work, then you pay taxi, you earn nothing.” I wonder if he said that because he got lost, or did he really mean it?

When I got out, his last words were, “Next time, don’t take taxi, OK?“