Recently in Tragedies Category
I had a weird dream two months back.
In this dream, I was with a group of guys at East Coast Park. The only person I recognized among the group was my good friend, Pang. It was night time and we were standing in a circle. We were staring at an upside-down Big Gulp paper cup which appeared to be moving. Apparently, there was something under it. One of the guys (can't remember who), took out a Zippo lighter and set fire to the base of the paper cup.
Loud squeaking noises could be heard from within the cup. The cup could be seen shaking violently before it was totally engulfed in flames and collapsed inwards. The charred remains of a huge rat were visible to all.
We laughed. The dream ended.
I woke up and I texted Pang, asking him if something of this nature did happen. The reply was positive. We burnt a rat alive at East Coast Park when we were about 15 years old. Although the both of us did not participate in this torching, we witnessed everything.
That happened almost 9 years ago. Although I don't believe in superstition, the fact that this dream was so vivid and accurate really spooked me out.
Birds normally fly away in time when a car approaches. Not this time.
I was going at approximately 40km/h. There was a bird in the middle of the lane. As the bird was trying to fly away, my car bumper caught it in mid-air. I assume it was quite a huge impact because of the loud "pop" sound. The collision sent the bird tumbling past the left window.
Immediately after the collision, I noticed another dead bird lying on the ground.
The only logical explanation I can think of :
1. The bird was engrossed in trying to move its dead friend.
2. It didn't notice my car coming and therefore wasn't able to fly away in time.
For the next half hour after that accident, I was in a state of shock, until Jessie managed to talk me out of it.
I attended a classmate's Dad's funeral today.
It was disheartening to know that his life was probably taken away by a crook. That crook preyed on an innocent and righteous man, but did not have the compassion to spare his life.
I hope the authorities find this guy and hang him. This damned soul will never go to heaven, but rather, left to suffer together with other murderers-alike in hell.
Let's not ask more about the situation, but if you have condolences to offer, please leave them in the comment box.
Without my glasses, I'm as blind as a bat. The difference is, bats identify their prey's location with ultrasound waves. I simply grope about the toiletries for my facial foam. As long as the bottle fits my palm, IT IS FACIAL FOAM.
I squeezed the transparent blue liquid onto my palms and rubbed my face hard. It must be a new brand of facial foam Jessie bought which explains the color. It smelled a lot like hospital antiseptic . Pretty smooth, little or no foam. Probably some expensive facial product. After washing my face thoroughly, I grabbed the white bottle to take a closer look.
Fuck!
Some idiot puked all over my car.
I was at Clementi Road about to U-turn when sharp-eyed Jessie spotted Traffic Police (TP) on the filter lane on the opposite side of the road. I continued to U-turn, but I did a really slow one. Confident that he wouldn't catch me for speeding/reckless driving, I moved along.
Then TP turned on his siren. "Might be trying to catch someone else", I thought. So I ignored him. Then he rode right in front of my car and signalled for me to pull over. A taxi behind me got pulled over as well. Turned off the engine, got out of the car and the Malay taxi driver was giving me a "what-the-fuck-did-we-do-wrong" look. I shrugged. The TP was an old Malay guy in his 40s.
TP : Gentlemen, do you why I pulled both of you all over? Do you both see any U-turn sign there?
Both of us just stood there and didn't respond. Oh, illegal U-turn la.
TP : Then why you U-turn? When you U-turned, the car coming from the filter lane has to avoid you, do you know? Very dangerous. $70 fine you know? Whats your reason?
*TP looked at the taxi driver*
Taxi Driver : Sorry sorry. Passenger ask me U-turn la, so I U-turn. She ask me find the nearest place to U-turn la. Sorry really never notice la the sign.
*TP looked at me. I thought "Fuck it, just be honest with him, see how."*
Me : No excuse. My mistake. Sorry.
*Seeing that we both really screwed up unintentionally, he muttered the magic words*
TP : Let you all off with a warning. Next time no more ah. Take care. Drive safely.
Phew! And as the taxi driver drove past me, he flashed a cheeky grin with a thumbs up sign!
At 9:45pm last night, when I first heard from Dad that he courageously went to put out the fire, I didn't really believe a single shit about it, until I verified the details with the everyone. It was true. Dad did really put out a fire.
About 45 minutes after I left home, a candle started a fire in the house directly below mine.
It grew bigger and bigger. The Fillipinos opposite were screaming FIRE FIRE. My neighbours, the Chinaman family, were all out in the corridor. Chinaman, half naked, was running around screaming "Zhao Huo ah" (on fire). After which he carried his son on the back, and together with his wife, they evacuated. Dad smelt the smoke and looked outside. Then he realized that the fire was JUST burning RIGHT below our fucking asses.
When the firemen first arrived. No more fire already la. Everything was covered in soot.
Dad rushed out, took the stairs down. Everyone was JUST fucking watching the flames lick the walls, and screaming but nobody was doing anything. The house was still burning, but thankfully it was empty. One-man-show, he went over to the firehose and started unrolling. Too bad it was locked. So he pulled and pulled till the lock snapped.
At this point of time, ( let me say again to the fuckin selfish people all around ), nobody FUCKING came to help.
After the hose was out and the water turned on, people THEN started to chip in, trying to hold the hose steady. But they only stood there for a while, before they dropped the hose and RAN OFF! Dad at this point of time was spraying wildly at the fire.
There's still another firehose opposite, let me go get it, he thought. So he instructed the Chinese guy behind him to hold the hose while he ran off to get the other one. And eventually when he did come back with the hose, guess what he saw? The Chinese guy dropped the hose in panic and RAN off. (Dad vows to fuck him up if they both ever meet again) Everyone was so fuckin afraid of the about-to-explode gas tank inside, and were standing opposite to watch.
Lucky for him, two Ang Mohs and a Filipino came over to help. Most of the windows have already shattered from the heat and the Ang Mohs were trying to remove the grilles so they could shove the hose directly in. The ended up all covered in soot, but nevertheless, fuckin brave. So together, the four of them put out the big fires, leaving only the tiny ones burning inside.
Then the firemen came, to clean the little bits of shit left.
The firemen were a real funny bunch. Probably new-comers.
1. They arrived at the wrong floor. The 19th floor.
2. They climbed the staircase up. And along the corridor, they kept dropping their door breeching tools and other equipment, making them look really really clumsy.
3. After putting out fire, firemen used handphone cameras to take photos. I think they want to blog about it too.
And when the fire was out, there were tons of policemen all around taking statements. Truely Singaporean No Action Talk Only style, everybody had so much to say to them, but when the real thing was on, all balls shrank and became cowards.
The owner below was stunned and damn sad, when he came home to a charred flat, but nevertheless, grateful for the four of them. Now they're still cleaning up the mess, Jessie and I are going down later on our way out, to see if they need us to help carry any garbage downstairs. Felt really sorry for them.
I missed the whole drama and came home only to a very warm kitchen floor. But I'm real proud of Dad. And at least I know that the people in my apartment who will really go all out to help a stricken neighbour, are the foreigners living here.
Few weeks back, there was a decapitated cat's head rolling about on the ECP. I was fetching Jessie home to Bedok, doing slightly above 100. The head rolled into my lane and I ran over it. The sensation afterwards can be described simply as "going fast over a tiny hump". A loud "tud-dukpt", followed by a sharp cracking sound, of which I think, is the skull.
The rear wheel was pretty much in a mess. After parking the car, I took out a LED torchlight and found dark stains + fresh red tissue all over the backwheel. Blood all around my bumper even. Jessie gave me a bottle of water to wash up the mess but the fishy smell (i think brain matter) still lingered on.
Luckily, nothing happened to the bumper, otherwise Dad would have hung me like the cat.
Waikian and Jessie consoled me with the fact that "it was impossible to avoid anything at 100 without crashing". It made me feel a lot better. But I'm pretty worried about the "cat-has-9-lives" theory.
I wonder which life of it I took. I hope it's the 9th and final one.
One of my ex-TP classmates, Rosdee, has been warded in Changi General Hospital. Apparently someone robbed him with a parang, gave him a good 19 stitches on the head. Urgh. Mark visited him in the afternoon and called me. I didn't believe Mark, thought he was just fooling around. I had to see Rosdee to believe.
So I drove down after dinner, 20 minutes drive to Simei, this had better not be a joke. Making my way to the ward, I asked around for "Rosdee". The nurse took a quick glance at an empty bed and casually replied "Oh that Rosdee, he's always downstairs with his friends."
I made my way down. That's Rosdee, sitting near the fountain with his elder brother and girlfriend. 5 stitches on the forehead, and 14 top to back. He even told me there was a slight crack in his skull from the parang impact. What the fuck man... what the fuck..
It freaked me out, cos we three of us (me, him and Mark) were musketeers during our TP days. Skip lessons together, go for smoke breaks, played billiards after school and sometimes, we all get fucked at one go during our tutorials. Mark and him often brought me on joyrides, just after they passed their bike license. It was very sad seeing Rosdee like this.
Turned out he got robbed at a petrol station in JB, not far from customs, while topping up petrol for his bike. An innocent-looking Malay guy approached him for help, needed Rosdee to help him onto the roof to retrieve his bike keys. So Rosdee followed him to a corner, pointed to a roof and asked if it was the correct one. The moment Rosdee looked down, the guy took out a parang (Rosdee said it was more of a sword than a parang, because the tip was long enough to touch the ground). Rosdee was told to hand over all his valuables, but Rosdee said he had none. He wasn't intending to put up a struggle or anything.
The guy slashed his head three times. According to Rosdee, there was no pain at all, it felt like "being hit by a baseball bat" and "getting punched repeatedly". The guy ran and Rosdee stumbled over to his bike and waiting girlfriend, before collapsing. He was rushed to the nearby hospital where they stitched him up while he was in an unconscious state. That was 4pm. He was brought over to Singapore around 10pm yesterday night. Meanwhile, his bike got stolen, WITH the keys STILL at the petrol station, how fuckin-incredible the Johor people are.
The Malay newspaper came over to interview Rosdee at the ward, took a couple of pictures, so if you're interested, buy the Malay paper tomorrow. Hopefully, it comes out on The New Paper as well.
I dropped Rosdee's brother back at his place just now and he was very disappointed over what happened. Shocked that this whole fucked-up slashing occured at broad daylight. Rosdee's brother said, "My brother was just being helpful, and end up he got slashed, in broad daylight somemore." From what Rosdee described, the attacker looked very innocent and he had absolutely no clue this was going to happen.
So whatever it is, spread this message to all your friends travelling to JB and back to...
1) Stay in crowded places (pickpockets nevermind, beats being slashed)
2) Most importantly, whoever asks for help, just ignore, walk away, run if you have to. Especially those car breakdowns near the highway and people flagging for you to stop. They can jolly fuckin well call their own tow truck, you move along.
If they still dont believe, you can show them this post.
( Permalink : http://www.orangeous.org/dailies/2005/12/death-by-parang.php )
It doesn't pay to be kind in JB. Stay safe always. Cheap cigarettes and petrol aint worth the risk.
No wonder so many comments....
Note : Some of you lot talk with your ass instead of your mouth. Sensible comments please and dont be a fuckin racist.
Wenbin totalled his car in the wee morning of 3rd September. It was a really bad bad crash at Clementi rd towards Jln Anak Bukit flyover. Traffic police and ambulance came.
It was a miracle that both Trisha and Bin walked out of this mess with a few scratches and seat belt marks. Thank God they're safe!