I’m not really a sucker for superstition, but it’s really too much of a coincidence. Just what is it about me, Orchard Road, and the rain?
I hopped onto the MRT at Raffles Place Station earlier this afternoon, and I clearly remember the weather to be pretty fine (although not very sunny). Guess what? Just as I was moving up the escalator at Orchard Station, I could vaguely hear the sound of rain beating down on the roof. Now, I don’t normally alight at Orchard Station, as in move up to the street level directly. Usually, I’d just disappear along Wisma Atria basement corridor, through to Ngee Ann City, and finally emerge from Lucky Plaza across the road. (Yes, I am a routine animal..). Ever since the Wisma Atria basement was closed off, I’ve only been to Orchard Road 3 times. Somehow, it never fails to rain on all 3 occasions. It’s nothing surprising, considering Singapore does have monsoon seasons. But it only takes slightly more than 5 minutes to get from Raffles Place Station to Orchard Station.
JUST WHERE DID THE RAIN COME FROM???!!!
If I had known it was going to rain, I could have brought an umbrella or something… Now the thing is, my leather shoes are quite water-proof, but not too splash-proof. So by having to run through Orchard Road without an umbrella, it is inevitable that some water does end up inside my shoes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t drain off. SOoo… Poor me… had to spend the entire afternoon walking around with twin swimming pools under my wrinkled feet. (Nearly died from the smell when I took off my socks upon getting home in the evening… XoP) Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny, so that I can dry out the damp insoles.
Anyway, since it’s been awhile since I last blogged, so just put in a word or two about something I observed in the MRT train on the way to Changi Airport some time back. I was waiting on the connecting train from Tanah Merah Station. The train had halted at the platform for quite a while. Guess the train operator needs sometime to walk from one end of the train to the other to change the direction of travel. Anyway, there was a food expo on at the nearby Singapore Expo, so I wasn’t particularly surprised when fellow commuters that came in shortly after me smelled like a cocktail of fruits, Milo, fried stuff, etc… However, what caught my eye was this young man with incredibly unkempt hair (though I think it would have passed off a some stylish hairdo if the head on which it sits on belongs to Beckham or Takeshi Kaneshiro), came in and sat 2 seats on my right, carrying 2 boxes of what I presumed was burgers. Now, just as the train started moving off in the direction of Changi Airport, this young man started dishing out a burger and started helping himself to his gastronomic delight, right opposite this sign which reads “NO EATING OR DRINKING”. I double checked just in case it read “NO FOOD OR DRINKS”. But yea, I got the message on the sign right. It did read “NO EATING OR DRINKING”. I was about to play the busy body and tell this young bloke to hold off his hunger pang, when I noticed that the surrounding passengers were all discretely staring at this young man eating, obviously annoyed at this young man’s disregard for regulations. Now, I was beginning to ponder why no one in the train carriage (myself included) would just choose to keep quiet despite witnessing an offence that warrants a $500 fine. I guess this is Singapore culture – the ‘None of my business’ attitude. Just when I was about to open my foul mouth and give the young bloke a piece of my mind, he suddenly kept his half devoured burger. Think he was ‘suddenly’ conscious of the stares from the surrounding people. Geez… if he THAT hungry? If he was obnoxious enough to disregard regulations and start eating right in front of the warning sign, why the hell would he be conscious of how fellow commuters are viewing him? Human psychology has suddenly become such an attractive field of study.
