fencing

Date: 4 Jul 2004
Time: 1605 hrs
Place: Outside Meritus Mandarin Hotel

Out of the corner of my eye, just behind and to my left, was a short Malay woman berpakaian baju merah tua (wearing a really red shirt) walking very rapidly -- now we all know the whole theory about the length of the pendulum determining the period of the oscillations but I think someone she managed to force her legs to swing much faster than that theoretical limit. The rapid plop plop plop of her heels forced me to turn my head to the left and I gazed at her and she seemed not to be moving because relatively, she was matching my speed. She asked, "How to go in?" You see there's this cobblestoned road just outside the Mandarin entrance and a white metal fence that blocks off that road from the main pedestrian pavement and it's not that high so I normally just hop on over it when I'm in a hurry.

"Follow me," I said and I led her to the nearest opening that was quite plainly visible but perhaps not so from her more humble perspective.