I had an interesting conversation today.

I was waiting for my father at a pharmacy, so I was squatting down and reading the words on some antiseptic solutions on the shelf. (You may ask: what's there to read? Frankly speaking, it is quite interesting, but only if you have read about them before, so you can laugh at the subtle differences between their descriptions. For example, all the other antiseptic solutions read "For treatment of wounds and abrasions." but povidone iodine reads "For effective treatment of wounds and abrasions." Shameless advertising? Nope, povidone iodine is indeed the best antiseptic amongst them, according to my sister's textbook.)

Two kids came to me and called me, "Uncle. Can I call you uncle?" (They spoke in mandarin. However, due to the horrendous chinese language support, I shall instead translate what they said. From here on, Y is me, A is one guy and B is the other guy.)

Y: "Yes you can." (Of course you may. I'm not going to miss such an opportunity for bragging rights.)

A: "Uncle, why are you looking at the shelf for so long? Is there a lot of things to see?"

Y: "I'm reading the words on the bottles. There is a lot to read."

A: "Oh yes, there really is a lot to read. I can't read the words."

B: "Take panadol!" (Referring to an advertisement of panadol extra with the ambulance driver)

Y: "I'm not sick, why should I take panadol?"

B: "Then you can be like that guy." (Pointing to the ambulance driver in the advertisement)

A: "I'm never taken an ambulance before."

Y: "Do you want to take an ambulance?"

A: "I want to be a taxi driver." (When I was his size I also wanted to be a taxi driver too.)

Y: "Why?"

A: "Because they earn a lot of money! They just need to start and stop the car and after a while they get a few dollars." (I used to think that way too.)

Y: "That's true." (I'm not going to spoil his dream.)

A: "What do you work as?"

Y: "I'm still studying."

A: "Where do you study?"

Y: "Raffles Junior College."

A: "Where is that?"

Y: "Bishan."

A: "Do you go by MRT?"

Y: "Yes."

A: "How many stops away?"

Y: *without thinking* "13 stops." (I used to count the number of stops when I was in sec 1 and not used to the long commute.)

A: "Wah, that's very far away, which stop is 14 stops away?"

Y: "Braddell."

A: "15 stops?"

Y: "Newton." (I'm not sure of my answer. I think they were testing me.)

A: "16 stops?" (That's it, they are really testing me.)

Y: "I'm not sure."

B: "How many stops away is Sembawang?"

Y: "10. No wait, " (interrupted)

B: "Wah, that's really far."

A: "You don't have school bus?"

Y: "Yar, we don't."

A: "Why not?"

Y: "There are too many of us, and we all live too far away."

A: "Our school has school bus. There are about 10 school buses to fetch us to school."

Y: "Ahh."

A: "Which gate are you?"

Y: "Gate?"

A: "Which gate do you go home by, gate 1, gate 2?"

Y: "Our gates are not labeled."

A: "How could it be?"

Y: "We just call it by the street it is closest to, like 'Bishan St 21 gate', 'Bishan St 22 gate', but the gates don't have specific labels."

A: "Oh. We are from South View." (Cool, I was from South View too!)

Y: "I was from South View too."

A: "So you used to be a baby?"

Y: "Yar, I wasn't so big all this while. Didn't you use to be a baby too?"

A: "No, I was never a baby. I have always been a kor kor."

Y: "Oh, so you are older, but he looks bigger than you."

A: "That's because he keeps stealing my food to eat."

B: "No such thing!"

Y: "So how much older are you, or are you twins?"

A: "He's 8 and I'm 9."

B: "Your school really don't have school buses?"

Y: "Yar, we don't, there are too many of us."

A: "How many?"

Y: "More than 2000."

A: "Wah! Why so many?"

Y: "The school is big."

B: "Primary what?"

Y: "I'm J2, but you can think of it as primary 12."

A: "Oh, we've got to go, bye!"
B: "Bye!"
Y: "Bye!"
___________________

Random thoughts.

The "Pool. Inspired by Guinness" advertisements have problems. In one advertisement they have the cue sticks without the barriers and pockets. In another, they have the barriers and pockets without cue sticks. They contradict each other.

My mother mentioned that in Jay Chou's "Secret", the female lead has the upper half of the face that looks like Gong Li and the lower half that looks like Stephanie Sun. I fully agree.

This year's "Will You" NDP theme song sounds very nice, but it is hard to sing.