Monster Ru

weird encounters

my internet connection has been down for the last 3 days. its funny. i thought that maybe i belong to the group of people who can't live without being connected for even one day, but boy, i was wrong. in fact, i think i managed quite well.

one of the weird things that happened since, was before Batman Begins, when i went to see my maternal grandparents.

my grandfather actually asked me to go to church with him. can you beat that?! i guess i was a bit naughty because i said - "oh, i go to the temple next to my house." and my most beloved only sister actually had the gall to give me a dirtier look than my dad did. in fact, my dad didn't give me any dirty looks at all!

i know one shouldn't be nasty to their grandparents. especially if you haven't seen them for a long time, and more so if your grandfather is the one who bought you your first guitar when you were 14 when you first really got into it, and even more so when he has never bought you any presents before. (and how he knew you so wanted a guitar at that time, god knows!)

but it really came as a shock to me. my maternal grandfather wanting me to go to church with him?! i mean - i have never been close to him. this being the fact that i am my mother's daughter, his very first grandchild, but not his first-born son's son. (how more fucking chinese can this get?! and as my dad's daughter, i have always been very very loved/spoilt by my paternal grandfather.) then i so nearly said, "my ah ma is taoist/buddhist, and i think i should be fair and not follow anyone." (which is my stand, really. and my dad's as well, until it was revealed to me that he too goes to church with them?!)

but i think all this came about because he is feeling old. and he really means well. as i grew up, i felt him "warming up" to me. i watched him and my grandmother get baptised, and how he just generally became a much nicer grandfather. and he also kept asking my sister and i to visit him whenever we have the time, which is probably another sign of someone feeling old.


...


and also probably because he really doesn't want me to burn in the depths of hell. on the 18th level.

in any case, i took a portrait of him, which my sister described as looking very much like the Mao portrait. (i will probably put it up in my flick'r account later this week for friends who want to see it.)

the other (not-so-weird) thing that happened was that earlier tonight, when i was having my dinner at the LongHouse on Upp Thomson Rd, the woman at the drinks stall sold me a packet of cigs, and then asked me after i lit one up - "eh, why you so young start smoking already?"

"huh? how old do you think i am?"

"17"

i nearly laughed my guts out. 17?! which fucking planet does she think she is on?!

i wanted to say, "auntie, you think i look so young, below 18, why you still sell me cigarette?"

twas funny because when she said "17", B, whom i was having dinner with, said "27" in Mandarin and then she asked me, "you not chinese ah?"

"i don't look like chinese meh? i'm chinese lah. why you think i not chinese?'

(pointing to B) "he leh? he look like foreigner." (and she didn't use the word ang moh! she said wai(4) guo(2) ren(2).)

"you ask him lah!"

(she probably thought that B is my father, which is kind of a running-joke by now.)

posted by 儒 @ 18:56