Living is easy with eyes closed

Joe kind of inspired this post.

I've encountered quite a number of loonies over the years, and most of them i've kept in my thoughts. In some ways i love meeting them, or hearing about them by word of mouth. Their existence makes life interesting, and some of them are just so cool.

Here's the OLD MEN SPECIAL!

2003, Holland Village Breko
Male subject sat tables away from me and my friends. We noticed him staring at us with a silly smile on his face and his index finger hanging from his lower lip. The whole night he sat there terrorising everyone with his gaze. Another group of 3 girls left the cafe and Male subject actually followed them out. One of them rushed back in and requested for the mangager to escort them out to take a cab. He came back after that to continue watching us, and the manager didn't do anything about him sitting there like that. Oh and when our group was talking and laughing, his smile'd broaden. We were all scared cos it was us girls and 5am in the morning. While we were gathering our stuff getting ready to go, Male subject closed his magazine and sat up straight. Seconds after we left followed suit and stood on the pavement watching our backs. We were feeling better cos the manager was with us, walking us to the main road where we got a cab.

2002, hawker centre near Redhill MRT
It was 1 in the morning, and i was having supper with my friend David. A few stalls were open and the place was relatively crowded considering that time of the night. We were finishing our food when this Old Man came to our table and spoke with clear enunciation. "Hello, do you know where to buy pockets?"
David replied steadily, "Pockets eh? Don't know." And Old Man walked away.
I was awed by their little exchange. It was as if they were on the same frequency and it was just so nice.

2002, Bus 157 along Bt Batok
I was on my way to Adam Road to meet a few people for supper, one of them Joe. So this Ah Pek came up to the upper deck and just chided Random Uncle for "smoking". Well Random Uncle was not smoking. Ah Pek was going on and on about smoking in buses and fines etc and Random Uncle did a great job of ignoring him. So what did Ah Pek do? He came and sat in front of me and bitched about Random Uncle smoking in buses to me. His hokkien was hard to comprehend so i couldn't catch half of what he was saying. But i bet he was on something.

1998, NTUC Coronation Plaza
Mindy and i hung around at Coronation a lot after school. This particular day we bought something from NTUC and were at the express counter paying for whatever we bought. While we were paying up, Nasty Old Man from nowhere crept up behind us and hurled verbal abuses at us. I don't remember the contents of his soliloquay but i remember the cashier telling us to ignore him cos he's mad.

1997, Bus 157 along Coronation, Bt Timah
After school i was going home, along with a few other girls who lived in the same area. We boarded this double-decker 157 and went to sit upstairs. The bus was rather empty since it was about 4 in the afternoon. We'd barely settled in our seats when this Grumpy Old Man started at us. He said lots of nasty things to us, calling us names along the lines of Slut. He threatened to hit us till our "blood [came] out" and to throw us in jail. All the while we just ignored him cos we were 13-year-olds. One of my friends took out her Science textbook and started reading it so Grumpy said "Don't pretend to study. You're only wasting your parents' money!" We were scared he'd follow us down when it came our stop but luckily he alighted before us.