Effusive laughter

Plodding up the covered walkway, a catching laughter greeted my ears. Turning to my left, I saw a little girl
donned in an orange pre-school
top cavorting insouciantly with a Filipino woman chasing her from behind. Her effusive giggles inundated the whole block, so much so that I felt tickled pink inside. Though smothered, a grin broke my impassiveness. I giggled a little but it was soft and unheard.
© Derrick Lim

A Chagrined Stallholder

Tell you a little anecdote that happened at the coffee shop where I had my lunch. As I was waiting for my kopi c kosong (coffee with evaporated milk and without sugar added) to be ready, an old man came by, stood beside me while reaching out for the clear plastic jug to refill his plastic cup. “Hey Uncle, no refill, please!” snorted the lady preparing my coffee (in Hokkien). “$0.30, if you insist,” she added. “What? I can’t afford that!”retorted the old man.

Guess what happened next? He dipped his hand into his pocket and fumbled for some coins. Before he could hand them over to her, the lady motioned to him to forget about it. Turning around with his clear plastic cup of water, he walked off uttering some expletives, looking apparently unappeased. One could tell from his face that his bitter exchange of words with the lady stallholder had sent him off feeling denigrated. Seeing that, it put me to wonder if their crossing swords with each other was even necessary in the first place. What do you say?
© Derrick Lim

A Ruined Lunch

While savouring contentedly the platter of food before me, I couldn’t help but notice a burly-looking Chinese man chomping his food laid over two platters. There was a mouth-watering piece of mackerel drizzled with curry on one platter and the other was filled with mounded rice, braised pig’s trotters and a salted duck egg; not forgetting the little dish containing black soya sauce. Seeing how he was enjoying his food put me to wonder if he had a clean bill of health. Just when I spooned another mouthful of rice, a stumpy pigeon drew my gaze away from him to itself as it waddled towards my feet. Instinctively, I drubbed my left foot in a bid to shoo it off. Guess what? It jumped off in flight towards the burly man, and he in turn shooed it off back to me. As all that happened too quickly, the pigeon flapped its wings in flight over my platter. “Gosh! It’s ruined,” I cried horrendously within. Try as I might, I had failed to ‘fortify’ my platter with my hands in time. And so the dust descender must’ve scattered over it from the pigeon’s feathers in its startling flight. What a ruined lunch! Thank God, I managed to finish two-thirds of it.
© Derrick Lim

A Gecko Fright!

Tell you a startling tale. Remember the tall grey mug, sitting on the dining table, filled with a tad bit of aloe vera juice with its jellies aplenty which you’d asked me to finish up. I drank a little intermittently but never finished it all. And when I returned to finish it off…”Blah! Lizard!” blasted in my head. Before I could take that in, the long, slender and sizable reptile darted out of the mug when lifted off the table. My eyes turned swiftly to the direction it trailed off. It startled me only a split second — it happened so rapidly — leaving no time for one to react! I bet the grey reptile was more startled than me. It actually shot out of the mug and took a nosedive descent onto the table. Before my eyes could pin down its track of escape, it took a death-defying plunge off the table and scooted off before I could recover from the startling fright. What a Lizard!
© Derrick Lim

A Flaky Scare

Feeling the overwhelming hunger pangs while marking, I hotfooted to the kitchen for a quick bite. Opening up the tupperware containers one after another, seeking for a desirable bite of delight, I finally found two Chinese pastries with gelatinous winter melon fillings. Like popping in a pill, I opened my mouth to the widest possible to squeeze the flaky piece in to every stretchable space within. A facile feat for me! When I finally did, some flaky bits fell to the sink top; of which I didn’t expect to, for I had done the gorging as immaculately as I could, I thought. Thinking that it was the moment to savour my delight, I directed a downcast glance to see if there were anymore flaky bits fallen, escaping my sight. Lo and behold! A white ant crawling across the flakes emerged brazenly from nowhere. Yuck! A resonating disgust echoed aloud in my head. Retching it up was the thought popped up! Within seconds, the delectable pastries ended their fate not in my gut but the bin. What a palpitatng scare!
© Derrick Lim

Be Thankful

Walking through the void deck, I noticed a ramshackle ‘tent’ erected at a pillared wall. In it was that familiar rough sleeper on a closer look. He was sleeping on a brown folded cardboard with a bicycle and another cardboard leaning against flanked before him; a trolley closed the entrance to his feet; and yet another cardboard standing guard his head. What a cleverly fortified ‘tent’ to keep one warm. Distancing away from him, I thought for a moment how blessed I must’ve been as compared to him. I was really thankful to God for a cosy bed that I could snuggle under its blanket to keep warm. Be thankful was the takeaway for me that morning. 

© Derrick Lim 

A Difficult Feat

The blaring ringing of the alarm clock didn’t seem to rouse me up from my sleep but on the contrary, it sent me back to slumberland. Yet inside me was a niggling voice nudging me to “Get up!”. In an acquiescent response, I drew my legs to an angular position while supinating my feet to their sides for grips, in a bid to thrust my body upright. Try as I might, I could never do it. It was like my body completely unhinged from its head. The pain in my neck was also bogging me down. And after a few futile attempts, I relented to its outcome as I was too feeble to bounce back from it. But when I finally gained strength to rise and walk to the living room, the sofa invited me to a respite from the hard work. As surely as I slumped into it, the soft cushion of the headrest immediately alleviated the rankling pain in my nape. “Ahhh…” I sighed. Soon the drowsiness engulfed me as swiftly as the dulcet flute music playing from outside the window tweedled me into yet another slumber. This time round, I didn’t even try to put up a fight against the soporific spell. My body seemed to be subdued by it without a tinge of guilt evoked. When I awoke, and I finally did, I felt for once the rest received was so much more than the one in bed. What a difficult feat! I quipped.

© Derrick Lim

No Standing, Please!

Tell you a little farcical act on a free shuttle bus. After I got on the bus, I made a semicircular glance for a vacant seat, and found only one at the back. Before I could sidle up there through a cramped aisle, my mobile rang suddenly. Picking it up, I heard my sister’s voice and chatted with her. So engrossed was I that I didn’t realise the bus was still stationary. “Hello!” boomed a voice from the cab. It broke my conversation with her, I turned and saw the driver saying something about “No standing, please”! I smiled at the driver sheepishly and murmured a word of sorry. I guess I was caught on the hop, and that’d drawn many unwanted stares which also sent me scrambling up to a seat close to the driver offered by a “relenting” passenger. So embarrassed and comical I was! Ever felt so this way? Share with me your embarrassing moment.
© Derrick Lim

Grief Knocks at our Doors…

To avoid pigeons flying over my head, I took the long route via arcing the path leading to the school. At the intersection point where the pavilion square overlooking the car park, a cropped hair Chinese girl was ululating with her arm round her mother’s while festinating towards the gate of the school. ‘Shadowing’ behind her, I saw her wiping off her tears while sobbing incessantly. Wondering what her grief was, I could see her mum’s silent protest in her hastening gait. While I was trying to take all that in, the girl suddenly freed her arm and charged ahead of her mum, who then followed suit. The story behind her grief was a mystery left undisclosed with their departure from sight. What an episode! This epiphany drew up a reflective thought in me — Life is not always plain sailing; grief does knock at our doors sometimes. 

© Derrick Lim 

​The Garden Speaks!

Stepping out of the lift, I see a stark contrast between the two lobby gardens: one is well-tended, thriving and flourishing in beauty and verve while the other is untended, filled with congeries of plants in disarray, and with quasi-gardening implements untouched and toppled pots left desolate. Taking all that in, a sudden thought conjured up in me: Doesn’t that reflect the kind of person one is? You’re either diligent or indolent; a connoisseur or smatterer–your choice to make!

© Derrick Lim