yandao.com - Memoirs of a player wannabe

Okay, I got a little bored, cos my Flash skills just suck, and anyway Flash sucks up resources, so what the hell, I scraped my idea for a Flash movie of today’s photos I took (actually, Beverly convinced me into scraping it, and yes, I’ve no regrets yah.)

However, here comes a short story.. Might sound abit cockup la – it’s just like photo stills from a VGA camera phone leh! Cannot expect too much… and YES, I TOOK THE PHOTOS MYSELF, TODAY!!! Here goes:

Journal of a Retired Regiment Left-tinent (British-spelling)

Day 1: The infidel rebel forces are getting greater in numbers, we, ourselves, cannot handle them. Our resources is getting lower by the second, as more and more trials and hardships await our regiment… We decide to stick up posters, warning the public about their danger…

Day 2: The British has sent in tanks as reinforcements, but they’re too bloody big? How do they expect us to use them on finding black people camouflaged? Alamak! Thankfully, our friends over at Wired Networks sent us a holographic map system which has direct uplinks to over 70 GPS servers.

Day 4: We know that those idiots like bicycles one. Always see them writing some cheapskate mountain bike which people throw away. Thus, we decide to stick this everywhere. Make them push their own bikes instead. For the Regiment! MUAHAHAHAHA!.. Also right, our commander tell us must aim towards the right abit, cos those idiots everytime talk that time shake head.

Day 6: We learn how to operate these advanced weapons. Must turn handle wan. Dunno what they are called lah.
Day 7: ORH. So this is how you aim it. I always thought is the muzzle point at our own men first. Not meh?

Day 8: We fought very-the-hard, and of course we kill those infidels lah. You think this one is Japanese Occupation meh?

Day 10: We have discovered a new LONGKANG, it’s probably the same one that Xiao_Bas fell into and cannot get out!

Hahaha. Crappy story, yes I know.

For the first time of my life have I saw a paikia (local slang for gangster) family – and by that I don’t mean just two or three people; More like five or six.

No, it’s not all that rare to someone who’s always on the streets, but for those who do know me, I’m not that someone. Honest. (though my contacts stretch beyond those mere punks) and yes, I’ve had my share of fun on the street, too.

Let’s get back to the family, there was: Mum, Dad, Son #1, Son #2, Auntie, and Uncle. That may seem normal.. but what was catchy was that they knew everyone.. Well, almost everyone – if all the secret-society looking members counted.. Brightly coloured hair, obsene tattoos, and oddly placed piercings added to the look. I would have taken a photo could I run fast enough. Yea?

Handshakes were exchanged, nods of affirmation, brief words, and the works were exchanged between those parties. It somewhat looked like a scene from a HK underworld flick. It actually took me some time to realise that I was in the West of Singapore, far West, probably “terroritory” of 1 major traid locally.

What really caught me by surprise was how much the parents cared for their children. I mean, people like us always have the perception that those gangsters must have had a not-so-good family, and that their parents probably didn’t give a damn if they got slashed by huge knives or broken Tiger beer bottles. I was very wrong.

Some messy-looking guy who was related to the family walked by, and said the usual greetings to Son #2, and took out a 20-stick cigarette pack.. Son #2 declined it, and then the guy walked away. The gangster-like parents noticed, and a brief exchange of similar words in hokkien was heard:

Mum: [vulgarity here] You want to die, ah? Have these kind of friends, know you underage still give you cigarette. What if you got caught by police how?

Dad: *agrees* Your brother is legal, that is why he can smoke. You want to have a criminal record in the future, ah?

Son #1 (who was still smoking): Yah, cannot give you [a cigarette].

I was impressed, not by the fact that this was a small matter, rather by the fact that even gangster-families who were so hard on the outside, cared for their children so much, and didn’t wish that they stray from the law. Yet, this is contradicting?

I don’t really know what kind of conclusion to draw from this… Ahh..