Walking with Barons

Date: 07 Apr 2007
Time: 1604 hrs
Place: Outside Sunshine Plaza

I'm looking away, down the road towards the prata shops, and almost twenty people were waiting to cross the street with me. An Asian dude, wearing three-quarter camouflage pants and a backpack, asked me which way Orchard Road was, with what I think was an Australian accent. Maybe he was a little drunk to be wanting to talk to the back of my head. But I turned around and told him which way to go. He then asked me if it was illegal to walk around with an open can of beer in his hand. I told him no, there's no law against it in Singapore (I think so). And he went off on his way.

But it's a nice place with lots of books...

Date: 15 Mar 2007
Time: 0930 hrs
Place: Outside Sunshine Plaza

She approached me around the corner, almost ambushed me, with young daughter in tow. She was wearing t-shirt and jeans and she asked me where Bugis MRT was. I told her to head towards the library. She said she didn't know where the library was, that she was a foreigner. So I set her off in the general direction.

Centre for Handling Stuff

Date: 13 Mar 2007
Time: 0922 hrs
Place: International Plaza

I had just gotten off a taxi when this Chinese man, looking much like a labourer immigrant, asks me where "Gao Wu Zhong Xin" was. I had no idea what place he was referring to, and even asking him to describe what he needed to be there for was somewhat futile. It seemed that he was late. I pointed him down the general direction towards where I thought the Ministry of Manpower was and he walked away with a frown.

It's all pork to me

Date: 07 Mar 2007
Time: 1125 hrs
Place: Carrefour Plaza Singapura

(sorf) At the meat counter, an auntie asked me which one is "ba tao". I didn't know. Asked her which part of the pig and she said she didn't know. She said she didn't want fat so I pointed out the lean hind to her and she was very happy.

Polite but lost

Date: 02 Mar 2007
Time: 1651 hrs
Place: Near Tanjong Pagar MRT

A guy wearing t-shirt and jeans asked me, "Sir, where is the MRT?"

Looking for the mechanical cai shen

Date: 25 Feb 2007
Time: 1939 hrs
Place: Upper Boon Keng

(sorf) Just outside the 7-Eleven, a young guy in glasses and black t-shirt and jeans, with his girlfriend, asked in Mandarin whether there was a POSB or DBS ATM nearby. Told him it was at the end of the block and to the left.

Spa-stic

Date: 07 Feb 2007
Time:1140 hrs
Place: Cricket Club

(sorf) I was standing at the traffic light waiting to cross over to the Cricket Club when a lady (long hair, glasses, spoke with a China accent) approached me from behind and she showed me a print out of Spacademy's address: 2 Stamford Road. So I said I wasn't sure but we were standing on Stamford Road so I pointed her down towards the Capitol Building. Midway through our conversation this kaypoh senior citizen male interrupted and asked "Are you looking for some place?". He didn't know where it was either.

Test results

Date: 24 Jan 2007
Time: 1100 hrs
Place: IOI Plaza

I had just crossed Middle Road to IOI Plaza when a middle aged balding man asked me in Mandarin, where is 30 Kelantan Road? He was showing me the address on a piece of paper that looked like it was some kind of test results slip for a medical checkup. I gave him the rough directions (he seemed to know the place as "dan shui jie" or ordinary water street?) and he went off.

Nobody loves you when you're down and out

Date: 23 Jan 2007
Time: 1123 hrs
Place: Lift lobby at home

(sorf) Two guys in the lift lobby just asked me which way is out.

Boo-jees

Date: 13 Jan 2007
Time: 1546 hrs
Place: corner of Bencoolen Street and Middle Road

(both) This tall Caucasian was gazing befuddledly at his map and he asked us where Queen Street was. We asked him where he wanted to go, and he said Bugis except he thought it was pronounced "Boo-jees". We pointed him the right way (towards the Library) and sent him on his way.

Sim Lim Forest

Date: 10 Jan 2007
Time: 1408 hrs
Place: SMU, outside School of Economics

(sorf) Two Asian guys (don't know where they are from because they have a funny accent) stopped me outside the School of Economics to ask where Sim Lim is. One dude was in a white shirt and black pants and the other dude was in a black shirt and blue pants. I sort of waved in the general direction of the electronics heaven and told them that it was quite far, about a ten to fifteen minute walk. And they thanked me and walked away in the direction of Hotel Rendezvous.

Do you speak Ikea?

Date: 28 Dec 2006
Time: 1730 hrs
Place: Ikea Tampines

This new Ikea is turning out to be really popular and the queues at the restaurant are just amazing. I just stepped in to get some coffee and cake when a little girl wearing pink and a tartan skirt and pink Crocs asked if she could speak Chinese. It took me a while to understand that she meant if I could understand Chinese. I said I could and she then asked me, in Chinese, to help her reach for the cup that was on the rack. And as I reached for it the young Malay Ikea employee tipped it out and I passed it to her.

She should stay away from toe-eating escalators while wearing those pirated Crocs.

Nursing the media industry

Date: 18 Dec 2006
Time: 1827 hrs
Place: Novena Square

(sorf) Lady in office gear asked me which side of the road she should take the bus from if she's going to Mediacorp and nurseries. There was an insane cab queue.

Do angmohs like ginger?

Date: 9 Dec 2006
Time: 1620 hrs
Place: Centrepoint

(both) We're in Cold Storage at Centrepoint when we were approached by an old lady who was looking for young preserved ginger (for eating with century egg porridge). She was directed to row 4 by the staff but she couldn't find it. We helped her scan the shelves and I managed to spot it. She thanked us and remarked that young people have sharper eyes, though sorf said that I had sharper eyes than her because I spotted it but she couldn't. And we told her that this place was rather "angmoh".

waiting for mom

Date: 18 Nov 2006
Time: 1018 hrs
Place: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

(sorf) Sitting at Dhoby waiting for mom and 2 guys from China asked for directions!

Sumimasen

Date: 19 Oct 2006
Time: 2109 hrs
Place: Tokyo

(both) We are in the Tokyo Subway walking from the Hanzomon line to the Marunochi line, looking for the exit to the Marunochi line, and I was looking lost while trying to figure out this pacer gadget and counting my steps, when this middle-aged guy wearing a beige jacket, comes up to us from behind, and asks us something in rapid Japanese. (Our best guess is that he was asking where the Akasaka line.) I said, "er... I don't speak Japanese" and he went to ask one of the station attendants.

Wi-Mac

Date: 27 Sep 2006
Time: 1531 hrs
Place: MacCafe at Great World City

(sorf) Someone just asked if I can be connected to the internet.

Lock on your soul

Date: 30 Aug 2006
Time: 0800 hrs (approx)
Place: Incheon Airport, Seoul

(sorf) I had just landed and I collected a cart for my baggage and was waiting at the conveyor belt. I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked around to see a 50-ish Korean lady in a very colourful outfit spoke a stream of Korean at me. It turns out she couldn't figure out how to pull out a trolley from the line of trolleys by pressing down on the handle and so I had to yank one out for her.

Car-ma

Date: 27 Aug 2006
Time: 1016 hrs
Place: near home

(sorf) Happened to borrow my sister's car. It's a bloody weirdo magnet. Some weird monk came up to me downstairs to wish me "Amitofo"

Pick me up

Date: 23 Aug 2006
Time: 1551 hrs
Place: NTUC

(sorf) Some dude from South Africa just tried to pick me up at NTUC!

Tagalog chat-a-lot

Date: 12 Aug 2006
Time: 1536 hrs
Place: Cathay

(both) Sorf had just come out of her hair appointment and these two Filipino ladies, in their forties, one with a black sleeveless top, came straight up to us and asked "Where is the Plaza Sing?", and then we told her where it was and then she told us that she was looking for "a SIM card" and she was "walking round and round" and could not find one. I told her that on the first floor that she could try the Starhub shop.

Circle Line will kill them

Date: 12 Aug 2006
Time: 1415 hrs
Place: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

I'm walking towards the escalator that goes to Plaza Singapura when some Chinese man, wearing white t-shirt, black pans, spectacles and ruffled hair, probably Singaporean, walked up to my side and slightly behind me, and asked me how to go to Toa Payoh MRT. I told him to take the travellator to the other line and five stops up towards Jurong East.

Is the station really that confusing?

Enter the lost dragon

Date: 30 July 2006
Time: 1938 hrs
Place: road junction near National Library

(sorf) Waiting at the traffic lights outside Sunshine Plaza headed for the library when a young guy in a dragon print shirt and shorts, with his girlfriend, asked in Chinese where the train station was. Told him Bugis and he asked if it was very far. Said no, just 2 lights down, and on the left.

Queue cutter

Date: 27 Jul 2006
Time: 2157 hrs
Place: IKEA

(both) We're right at the cornermost cashier, waiting to pay for our purchases, when this middle-aged lady wearing printed pants rudely interrupts us from behind and asks if we would mind if she could pay for her scented candles first. The candles weren't very classy and to think that she travelled all the way down to IKEA just to buy these cheesy candles. We said no and she had to go back to the tail of the queue.

mm chee dou...

Date: 25 Jul 2006
Time: 2005 hrs
Plaace: Outside Novena Square

(sorf) A very harried looking bespectacled young woman outside Novena Square asked in Cantonese what road she was on.

Chemists that don't do chemistry

Date: 18 Jul 2006
Time: 1010 hrs
Place: Maxwell Market

I'm at Maxwell Market just having a nice coffee when an Australian lady, wearing a t-shirt with the word "DIOR" splashed over it, comes up to me and asked where the nearest chemist was. I told her to head over to Raffles City to look for the pharmacies there.

Dove

Date: 16 Jul 2006
Time: 1755 hrs
Place: NTUC Toa Payoh

I'm with my younger brother looking at the foldable table on offer and this man asks me from behind, in Hokkien, whether the Dove shampoo could be used for washing the body or washing the hair ("ji gei xi shui tao meng ah si shui xin gu eh?"). My younger brother told him that it was not for body washing. I think he had some problem with his eyes. He's probably a bachelor, quite dirty looking, carrying an umbrella.

It's a taxi queue!

Date: 11 Jul 2006
Time: 2115 hrs
Place: Paragon Shopping Centre

(sorf) Am loaded with groceries and too lazy to walk so I'm waiting for a taxi in the taxi queue. And I got asked by a filipino lady which is the taxi queue!

Hold your peace...

Date: 08 Jul 2006
Time: 1241 hrs
Place: Just outside Dhoby Ghaut MRT near Penang Road

(both) We had just come out of the exit and a lady in jeans skirt and red tank top came up from behind us and asked us, "Excuse me, where is Peace Centre?" I told her to go towards Selegie Road and she was hemming and hawing and asked, "oh it's the other side ah?" and I said yes and then she walked off. I think she wasn't very happy though.

Revolving door challenged

Date: 06 Jul 2006
Time: 1425 hrs
Place: The Factory

(sorf) Chubby woman in black blouse and pants at the revolving gate outside our office asked if she could get in. I told her she had to go to the main gate.

Woody Allen was right about Chinatown

Date: 05 Jul 2006
Time: 2141 hrs
Place: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

(both) We are getting on the train at Dhoby Ghaut when a voice asks us from behind, "Excuse me, does this go to Chinatown?" in some unplaceable European accent. He was a tall, Asian looking guy wearing jeans and blue shirt, with a Caucasian girlfriend wearing a purple skirt. There's a whole lot of people they could have asked and they chose to ask us. From behind. I told them no, they have to take the train from the other side, while sorf had blanked out.

Myanmar heart Mustafa

Date: 20 Jun 2006
Time: 1922 hrs
Place: near Mustafa

20-something Burmese man, wearing red shirt, bermudas, sandals asked, "Mustafa Plaza, Mustafa Market". He was looking to buy shoes. I walked with him from next to New Park Hotel towards Serangoon and showed him Mustafa Plaza and he walked into the driveway.

Walking with a racket

Date: 19 Jun 2006
Time: 1915 hrs
Place: Corner of Rangoon Road and Race Course Road

I'm waiting for a cab when a teenage boy carrying a red bag and tennis racket wanted to know which way to walk to Novena and asked me which direction to walk towards.

Senior Citizens un-fare

Date: 06 Jun 2006
Time: 1709 hrs
Place: near Queenstown MRT

I'm sitting at the busstop near the MRT, looking away at the road, when from behind me approached a nice 50 something year old lady in bright orange top, curly hair, black trousers with a foldable umbrella and red plastic bag. She was checking the senior citizen's fare chart on display at the busstop. She pointed to the part where it says that the senior citizen's concession fares are from 9am to the close of operations and asked why she was charged the full fare for the ride she just got off from. It turns out that she was taking bus number 970, which is an SMRT bus, with different times for the senior rates, and there was no senior concession from 4.30pm to 7pm. Satisfied with the explanation, she left.

Dye-dye must get there

Date: 30 May 2006
Time: 0921 hrs
Place: City Hall MRT

(sorf) At City Hall MRT plugged into my iPod, when a middle aged lady in jeans and a purple t-shirt, with a fading dye job showing all her grey roots, came up from behind me and asked me how to get to Bugis MRT.

TCC conflict

Date: 24 May 2006
Time: 1830 hrs
Place: Near the museum

(sorf) I was walking from the National Museum towards the Kopitiam, waiting at the traffic light, and this tall Indian man, about thirty-something, in long sleeved black shirt and black pants, actually came up behind me and politely asked where the nearest TCC was. Apparently he had arranged to meet an SMU person at who told him that the TCC is opposite SMU and near a 7-11. But there are two TCC's, one opposite SMU and not near a 7-11, while another is over at Nafa and near a 7-11. So I gave him both options, the one at Hotel Rendezvous, and the one at Nafa. Conflicting instructions from the SMU person!

Money changer changing trains

Date: 19 May 2006
Time: 1758 hrs
Place: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

Walking over to the north-south line near where they had placed a very annoying "interactive" projection-on-the-floor thing, and wearing headphones, when an Indian man, old skinny guy with sharp features wearing a yellow shirt and dark pants, slightly unkempt, carrying a small bag looks like those used to carry football boots (looks like he could be keeping the day's foreign currencies in it), asked me how to get to Little India station. Actually he just yelled "Little India!" I told him to take the escalator down and take one stop on the train on the left.

towgay conspiracy

Date: 6 May 2006
Time: 1856 hrs
Place: Bugis Cold Storage

(both) Here we are, doing our grocery shopping, minding our own business, when a short haired, middle aged Chinese woman, wearing a black and white striped top, came up to us and told us not to buy the root-less towgay, because they although they are clean because they are grown in water, there are chemicals added to inhibit the growth of roots, and those chemicals are harmful to the body. We bought it anyway, so dangerously we are, trading health for convenience. The assertive quality of her speech suggested that she possibly was a primary school teacher.

Where the streets have no name...

Date: 23 Apr 2006
Time: 0023 hrs
Place: Maxwell Road outside Maxwell Market

(both) We were waiting for a taxi, when from behind, without even an "excuse me", 2 chubby gay boys, one wearing white t-shirt and bermudas, another wearing orange t-shirt, carrying a map, asked us where's Tras Street (probably to get to some gay bar there). We were like, huh? Oriented them to the map and set them on their way... think they were from Hong Kong.

Stylus

Date: 17 Mar 2006
Time: 2347hrs
Place: Yishun MRT

Near the ATM I was in line about to withdraw money so I pulled out my PDA and was using it when a middle aged man with very short hair wearing a blue t-shirt and slippers asked me if he could borrow my pen. So I told him I had no pen, and he insisted that I had, pointing to my PDA stylus. I had to tell him that you couldn't write with it and I had to repeat myself a few times. Don't think I managed to really convince him in the end but he went to ask someone else for a pen. Wonder what important note he was writing... or maybe it was just 4D inspiration.

iPods are no defence

Date: 15 Mar 2006
Time: 1100 hrs
Place: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

(sorf) 50something lady in pink top and tailored skirt ran after me to ask for directions on how to get to Boon Keng station, in mandarin. I was plugged into iPod. She had to chase me and touch my elbow before i realised.

Mustafa attraction

Date: 12 Mar 2006
Time: 1544hrs
Place: Rangoon Road



(both) Waiting outside the Singapore Pools branch at Rangoon Road for a cab, and a 30ish man, who's got either a Thai or Japanese accent (we can't place it), carrying a backpack in shorts, and running shoes, asked us where "the Mustafa" was. Pointed him at the restaurant with the big green sign and told him it was just next to it. The guy walked over and he must have walked really fast because the next thing we knew we spotted him crossing the road over.

"In the next 5 minutes you will be rejected..."

Date: 25 Feb 2006
Time: 1307 hrs
Place: Bugis basement

Eating nasi lemak and nasi goreng near the Delifrance and minding our own business when some middle-aged Chinese man came straight to me and asked if I wanted my fortune read and immediately offered that I would make a lot of money in two years but this year I would have a lot of difficulty and that I should buy a talisman from him.

Susan?

Date: 16 Feb 2006
Time: 2000hrs
Place: Restaurant, near Raffles City

(sorf) Some woman at the next table thought I was someone named Susan. Moments later, they now recognise me by my real name. The woman was with an actress friend. She said my piece on Jack was spot-on.

"Honey I'm good with a hammer"

Date: 16 Feb 2006
Time: 1930hrs
Place: Royal Selangor

(sorf) Royal Selangor has a hilarious t-shirt that says "Honey I'm good with a hammer". Ran into extremely chatty salesman who didn't know that singles could buy HDB flats, and ended up explaining property rules to him.

iPods are no barrier

Date: 14 Feb 2006
Time: 1155hrs
Place: the office

(sorf) I'm busy as heck, plugged into iPod and surrounded by people but delivery guy asks me "Where is Patricia?" Adoi...

Lian's gotta eat

Date: 13 Feb 2006
Time: 1926hrs
Place: office

(sorf) Middle aged lian just accosted me unceremoniously outside lift with question "Can go to food center?" S'poreans really have no manners.

Skip to the loo

Date: 11 Feb 2006
Time: 2128 hrs
Place: Esplanade Theatre

A Chinese lady asked me in Mandarin, "Where's the toilet?"

While she was shopping...

Date: 8 Feb 2006
Time: 1604
Place: Paragon

(sorf) Elderly white guy laden with backpack laptop bag and his Chinese girlfriend's Isetan shopping just asked me if this is hotspot and if have to configure to use.

Shaheen fan

Date: 03 Feb 2006
Time: 1941 hrs
Place: Esplanade

(both) We're standing at the top of some stairs about to go into the concert hall at Esplanade and some Caucasian lady with a red shawl (walking by with some friends) comes up to sorf and tells her "I *love* your dress!"

The dress is a vintage Alfred Shaheen from the 60s, cream with bright pink butterflies. I have no idea how the colour stays so bright after so long. Sorf says it's because it's polyester.

"No success can compensate for failure in the home"

Date: 03 Feb 2006
Time: 1855 hrs
Place: Outside Suntec City

Kumar from Sri Lanka and his angmoh friend, wearing the standard Mormon attire (white shirt and black pants), were walking along the road between Suntec and Marina. They stood out from the mess that was the construction going on. At least they weren't pushy, just giving me a brochure and his name card, the back of which had location and times of church services (in Singapore there are 4 and one in JB) and the somewhat disturbing quote "No success can compensate for failure in the home" -- no attribution.

The front of the card: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. www.lds.org.sg . Singapore mission office. 6735-6723. KUMAR. 6455-5124"

This is why you should have lunch with colleagues...

Date: 03 Feb 2006
Time: 1510 hrs
Place: Outside Maxwell Market

Some angmoh architect, wearing glasses and a coloured striped shirt and singlet and jeans, asked me where 1617 Duxton Hill is. Turns out that's where he works at and he got lost trying to get back after lunch. At first I pointed him to Ann Siang Hill, then realised that Duxton Hill was the other direction, and once he looked the right way he said that things were starting to look more familiar now.

Floor 6B? Isn't this stolen from Being John Malkovich?

Date: 31 Jan 2006
Time: 1400 hrs
Place: Plaza Singapura

(both) We're in the lift at Plaza Singapura, which inexplicably indicated that it was on floor "6B" when we were on the 5th floor, a lady asked us which floor is the cinema and we helped her press the "7" button.

kong si mi? part 2

Date: 15 Jan 2006
Time: 1409 hrs
Place: Hong Kong

(both) We're about to cross from Canton Road to Peking Road and this guy, with a shaven head, wearing a windbreaker, asked us something in Cantonese again, something about where to buy something, and he was with his girlfriend.

kong si mi?

Date: 12 Jan 2006
Time: 1431 hrs
Place: Hong Kong

(both) We're walking down Hollywood Road waiting to cross the street and we get asked directions by a young woman wearing an orange lined jacket. She must have assumed we were natives because she approached us from behind and just blabbered a long string of Cantonese, a language neither of us understand.

the bank with the key...

Date: 07 Jan 2006
Time: 2029 hrs
Place: Just outside Mustafa

We're going to do some late night shopping at Mustafa and just as we were going into the entrance a young Chinese man came up to me and asked me, in Mandarin, where the nearest ATM was. He looked very much like an ah-beng and spoke almost no English. He was very polite though. He told me the bank had to be "the one with the key", and I could understand that he meant the POSB because that's the shape of their logo. I told him to go down Kitchener Road and then turn left on Jalan Besar as there's a POSB branch there.

So perhaps there was some good in having those symbols for the government bodies shaped like what they were. Like the PUB symbol looking like a lightbulb, or the HDB logo looking like a house.

Black Eggs

Date: 07 Jan 2006
Time: 1139 hrs
Place: Mustafa supermarket

(both) We're at Mustafa and some black dude (probably from Africa) wearing a cap and an Argentina football jersey asked us how much eggs were.

$1.90 for ten.

just follow where the Chinese are heading?

Date: 05 Jan 2006
Time: 1532 hrs
Place: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

(sorf) Middle aged couple at Dhoby Ghaut MRT asked how to get to Chinatown.

(we get lots of questions at the Dhoby Ghaut interchange. evidently the place is just really badly designed, if after about three years of it being open that people still get lost and confused.)

Super-market search

Date: 14 Dec 2005
Time: 1202 hrs
Place: Harbourfront

I'm outside Tower One, near the base of the escalator, two Malay men (probably Bruneians), both wearing caps, t-shirts and 3/4 pants, one in his 20s, another in his 30s and fatter, looking for a big electronics supermarket. I pointed them back to Harbourfront.

Mohamed... Mustafa...

Date: 07 Dec 2005
Time: 1818 hrs
Place: Farrer Park MRT

A young Indian man in a blue shirt and backpack at the escalator asked me how to get to Mustafa.

It's awl in the drawl

Date: 3 Dec 2005
Time: 0845 New York time
Place: New York hotel breakfast

(sorf) Extremely chatty waiter behind counter from Fort Worth, Texas. He thinks the two little old ladies gaping at the restaurant are also from Fort Worth. Meanwhile, eggs benedict.

Crappy cabbie

Date: 3 Dec 2005 (2 Dec 2005 New York Time)
Time: 1900 hrs New York Time
Place: New Jersey, somewhere on the way from Newark Airport

(sorf) Cabbie lost in Jersey trying to find the Lincoln Tunnel got asked for directions.

Globally plugged in

Date: 2 Dec 2005
Time: 1100 hrs
Place: Changi Airport T2 lounge

(sorf) Asian 30-something guy asked how to plug into broadband.

The place's renovated with lots of Playstations all over and he wants to check his email??

Why is everyone in a rush?

Date: 29 Nov 2005
Time: 1936 hrs
Place: Plaza Singapura

(both) A tall skinny Chinese girl wanted to cut our queue because she only had one item.

Three times

Date: 16 Nov 2005
Time: 1400 hrs
Place: The Factory

(sorf) Got asked for directions at my desk three times!

It's a kind of magic...

Date: 15 Nov 2005
Time: 2030 hrs
Place: National Library

(both) Lots of people hang out at Hans for the nice ambience, cheap food and free wifi. A couple of young nerdy male Chinese guys also hung out there to show people unsolicited magic tricks. They said that they were trying to publicise a magic workshop where for a small fee you could learn the tricks they just showed (some standard ones involving a deck of cards, and dice, and rubber bands, if I remember right, because it was quite a generic magic trick). We patiently sat through the trick (sorf was banging out some story on her laptop throughout the whole ordeal) and then we politely said no, we weren't interested. And they reacted as if it was unbelievable that we could be uninterested. "Derek SUM, IT Business consultant" even gave me his business card, but I don't think his was a real business considering he had a yahoo.com.sg email address, only a mobile number listed, and a Tanjong Pagar cubicle farm for his office address. They looked like they were really free and were doing these tricks over and over to unsuspecting passers-by.

To the Harbourfront

Date: 15 Nov 2005
Time: 1053 hrs
Place: near Sim Lim Square

Perhaps they were trying to get to Sentosa? I was crossing the road at the junction outside Sim Lim Square when two young Indian men, one wearing a brown shirt and spectacles, another with a shirt and jeans and backpack, approached me to ask where they could take a bus to Harbourfront. Ignoring the fact that they were overdressed, I took out my PDA and checked the bus guide that I had in there, but I couldn't find any direct bus that they could take. I told them to walk down a short distance to the Little India MRT station and take the train from there. They thanked me and shook my hand.

We don't own it anymore

Date: 10 Nov 2005
Time: 1907 hrs
Place: Near Raffles Hotel

(sorf) Young bearded (?) boy in bermuda shorts and backpack asking for Raffles Hotel. Don't think he's staying there...

Scary monster shopping carts

Date: 08 Nov 2005
Time: 1848 hrs
Place: Plaza Singapura

I'm at the place where the shopping carts are parked outside of Carrefour when a little bespectacled Indian boy wearing a "Scary Monster" t-shirt comes up to me and asks "Can you help me?" He couldn't figure out how to take out the one dollar coin deposit that was in his cart. I told him "you just put the thing in", and he quickly managed to figure it out himself, and then he ran off, embarassed.

Something tells me he's not going to be asking for any more help or directions from strangers after this...

perhaps it's for his drunken prawns?

Date: 04 Nov 2005
Time: 1732 hrs
Place: Plaza Singapura

(both) We are waiting in line at the Carrefour with a substantial amount of groceries when some guy in a chef's uniform comes by, cutting the queue, with a single can of Carlsberg, asking us to let him go first because he is in a rush to go to work, and then later he says that he's "fang gong liao" (just finished work). Liar.

To market to market

Date: 02 Nov 2005
Time: 1204 hrs
Place: near Newton Circus

I was making my way back to Little India and didn't feel like taking the train all the way down to Dhoby Ghaut in order to change to the Northeast Line back up again, and so I decided to try taking a bus. Getting off at Newton MRT, I was jaywalking to cross the road to get to the bus stop. As I was crossing, there was an late-middle aged Sikh couple waiting to cross to, but obviously somewhat bewildered by the heavy flow of vehicles towards the circus. He was wearing a light blue turban, white shirt and singlet and brown pants, and the lady had a veil over her head, wearing a cream dress, walking quite slowly. They wanted to know if there was a market around here, which they've heard was a very large one. I couldn't think of any markets in the area so I suggested that perhaps they were looking for the Tekka market. I told them it was quite a ways and perhaps they should take a cab but they seemed to have (well, at least he seemed to have, because he was talking in his heavily accented English to me and his wife was keeping quiet) some irrational fear of dishonest taxi drivers. So he asked if they could walk and I said it was quite far away to walk and probably not a good idea given the hot weather, and they could take a bus, so they walked with me to the bus stop. When we reached there they were discussing something, probably in the Sikh language, and then abruptly decided to walk, but walking in the opposite direction. Strange.

The return of the Tai-Tai

Date: 6 Oct 2005
Time: About 1600 Moscow time
Place: Red Square, Moscow

(sorf) A middle aged lady, the Russian equivalent of a tai-tai, asked for her photo to be taken. Aren't that many Asian looking people walking about Moscow, yet tourists will be tourists.

Do I look Russian to you?

Date: 5 Oct 2005
Time: 1108 hrs Moscow Time
Place: Outside Kievskaya Station, Moscow

(sorf) Fifty-something man with mustache and purple plastic bag and his twenty-something blonde son asked for directions. In Russian. Doesn't wielding a camera make one a tourist?

Cubicles, part two

Date: 15 Sep 2005
Time: 1128 hrs
Place: "The Factory"

(sorf) Again I get asked for directions to other people's cubicles...

"I read your face, it says you're a sucker..."

Date: 11 Sep 2005
Time: 0955 hrs
Place: Table no. 9, a HDB market

(both of us) A man in a polo t-shirt, hand carrying a bag, comes up to us and asks if we want our faces read and to tell us our fortunes.

Do they have upsidedown lifts down under?

Date: 09 Sep 2005
Time: 1824 hrs
Place: Shaw Towers

Three Aussie Tai-Tai tourists got into the lift to try to get to the cinemas, but I told them to go back to the first floor, past the McDonalds, and to take the other lift.

Hubba hubba

Date: 31 Aug 2005
Time: 1039 hrs
Place: HDB Hub

(sorf) A little old man, dressed in shorts and slippers, anxiously waving his letter with the address. He needed to go to the Central CDC office, stating so in Cantonese. I answered in my very wobbly Teochew, then took him up the wrong lift lobby. Had to go check the map and get to the right one.

I not American

Date: 17 Aug 2005
Time: 2046 hrs
Place: Earshot store, The Arts House

Middle aged female tourist from the States with sort of white-ish hair asking where to buy "I Not Stupid" cos she watched the show and really enjoyed it and wanted to buy back copies for her friends. Told her to go to Dhoby Ghaut via MRT and buy it from the cheap VCD/DVD shops at Plaza Singapura.

Adjustable fitness

Date: 25 Jul 2005
Time: 1930 hrs
Place: Fitness First

I'm at the gym and someone asked me how to adjust the bike seat.

Indian stitches

Date: 25 Jul 2005
Time: 1747 hrs
Place: somewhere in Orchard Road

(sorf) Nice middle aged Indian lady asked me where to buy cross stitch materials.

No, it doesn't matter how busy you look

Date: 22 Jul 2005
Time: 1840 hrs
Place: Near HDB Hub

(sorf) Got accosted by a guy trying to do a survey on skin care while trying to find the cinema while on the phone, sms-ing.

Do we look hungry?

Date: 06 Jul 2005
Time: 1708hrs Bangkok Time
Place: In a cab on our way to Sirocco

(both of us) Sweet Chinese lady offered us food outside of a Hindu temple. Do we look hungry? Maybe we just look curious. Just boggled by the idea that they were giving out free food, even to tourists passing through in a cab.

Sour or Sweet?

Date: 06 Jul 2005
Time: 1447 Bangkok Time
Place: Tops Supermarket, MBK basement

(both of us) Some thirty-something woman asked us, in English, if the mangoes were sour or sweet. Er, like how would we know unless we've taken a bite into them??

Unmarketable

Date: 14 Jun 2005
Time: 1358 hrs
Place: The Factory

(sorf) Again I get asked for directions in my cubicle! White haired dude asking where Mag Lum sits. And Pau Lin. And Ah Yoke. And he turns out to be from marketing!

passage through little india

Date: 11 Jun 2005
Time: 2340 hrs
Place: Junction of Kitchener Road and Serangoon Road

(both of us) It was just a couple of seconds, standing at the corner, waiting for the traffic lights to change. I was looking forward, and sorf was looking back, just briefly. Without any distinguishing reason (I mean we weren't the only people on the street that busy Saturday night, with all the Mustafa traffic and lonely construction workers on their day off), two Indian men in colourful short-sleeved polo t-shirts and jeans came right at us, pounced on us from behind, and asked "How to get to Lau Pa Sat?" I was stumped, for the first thing I wondered was if these people were seriously wanting to *walk* there. "By?" I asked, and he said "Taxi." That was sorf's turn to go "Huh?", because why would you need directions if you were going to take a cab? I pointed in the direction of Jalan Besar and off they went happily with a "thank you very much" and leaving a puff of smoke.

boon lay boondocks

Date: 7 Jun 2005
Time: 1404 hrs
Place: In front of Swenson's Crown Prince Hotel

(sorf) A soft spoken white-haired Asian lady with an ang-moh accent, dressed like a Japanese tourist with a white shirt over a coloured t-shirt, hat and shades, asking how to take the MRT to Boon Lay Interchange. It's surprising that tourists still want to go visit the Bird Park in this kind of heat.

This happened just minutes after being stopped by some Citibank salesperson after half a dozen people walked past him. What exactly goes through their tiny sale-person minds as they filter through the crowds that throng past them? hmm...

personal space

Date: 31 May 2005
Time: 1056 hrs
Place: SPH office

(sorf) I'm the only one plugged into headphones out of 4 people and I get asked directions to Judith Tan's desk!

what do you call pregnant bimbos?

Date: 25 May 2005
Time: 1735 hrs
Place: Paragon Shopping Center

(sorf) I think this unsolicited accosting on the street is getting way out of hand. Three times in the space of minutes. Twice by survey girls who went out of their way to stop her and once by some guy selling postcards.

Moments before, in the lift coming down, a couple of bimbo ah-lians got on at the 3rd floor to get off at the 2nd. That short journey was sufficiently long enough to overhear a declaration that if she's pregnant she won't wear maternity clothes but sexy things.

I think the headlines for the week were about educated women choosing abortion as their choice of birth control...

a crow, defiant

Date: 22 May 2005
Time: 1113 hrs
Place: Outside Farrer Park MRT

I was trying to find where my favorite prawn noodle stall at the Race Course Road kopitiam had moved to, so I was walking up and down Rangoon Road and Kitchener Road, in vain. There was a crow, standing his ground on top of a metal drain cover, enjoying shade from a nearby tree filled with noisy crows, and generally oblivious to the passers-by. I had passed it twice already in my noodle quest. So I started disturbing it, touching its beak with the bottom of my slipper, when another crow-like creature came out of the MRT exit and (it seems, almost) made a bee-line towards me.

He was a long-haired middle-aged Malay man, dressed rocker-mat style, with a dirty sling bag and his hair flowing out from under his cap. "Where is the Mustafa?" he asked, the article "the" being quite appropriate actually. I pointed him down the road and to the right and off he went, leaving me to wonder what exactly he was looking to buy from "the" Mustafa, and whether he'll be wearing rock t-shirt and jeans for the rest of his life.

(Later I asked the angry Putien stall matriach and she feigned ignorance without uttering a word, perhaps she'd gotten a sore throat screaming at her teenage rebellious daughters. The drinks stall auntie was much more helpful, even explaining why she did not go "support" the stall, among other things. I think people should talk to her more.)

What's interchange in Mandarin?

Date: 12 May 2005
Time: 1803 hrs
Place: Braddell MRT

I was waiting for sorf to join her on the train, at the Braddell MRT southbound platform, when a female Chinese national and her son asked me how to get to "Wen Li" (Boon Lay?) and mumbled something about IMM. I explained to her as best I could about changing trains but I wasn't sure how to say "interchange" in Mandarin. They got on the next train and left.

Machine trouble

Date: 07 May 2005
Time: 2345 hrs
Place: Near Upper Boon Keng

(sorf) At one of the ATM machines, there was a foreman and his Thai worker who asked for help regarding his wonky ATM card.

It's never too far

Date: 30 Apr 2005
Time: 1417 hrs
Place: Le Meridien bus stop

(both) We had just gotten off the bus 167 together when two teenage Malaysian girls asked sorf in Mandarin "which way to Plaza Sing?", and "is it far?"

French dog

Date: 14 Apr 2005
Time: 1609 hrs
Place: Cannes

(sorf) A sweet little old French lady walking her dog stopped to introduce me to her pet. He's called Pearl. Hee hee

Take me to Taka

Date: 30 Mar 2005
Time: 1505 hrs
Place: Orchard Boulevard

An Indian national asked me at the traffic light, "Where is Taka?"

film buffs everywhere

Date: 19 Mar 2005
Time: 1829 hrs
Place: In the MRT train between City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut

Thirty-something Chinese man. Yuppie? Groupie? Tapped me on the shoulder and asked me where I got the SIFF catalogue from. Told him it was actually a short films brochure (shown at the temporary history museum) and offered him the SIFF website URL instead.

Geographically misplaced

Date: 18 Mar 2005
Time: 1103 hrs
Place: Club Street Carpark

Five schoolgirls wearing Geography Club and Computer Club t-shirts asked me "Where is Far East Square?"

maybe he needs money for shampoo?

Date: 9 Mar 2005
Time: 1435 hrs
Place: Plaza Singapura outside Giordano

(sorf) Balding man asked for directions to POSB.

ribbons

Date: 9 Mar 2005
Time: 1123 hrs
Place: Spotlight, Plaza Singapura

(sorf) Girl, pregnant, from China, asking for advice, in Chinese, with some English thrown in, about ribbons.

Well, maybe arts and crafts will be the universal language one day. For crafty girls at least. :)

Where the young men go...

Date: 02 Mar 2005
Time: 1655 hrs
Place: Outside the Old Parliament House

(sorf) There was a fashion show going on outside the Art House, and a couple asked how to get to YMCA.

it's holiday time

Date: 1 Feb 2004
Time: 1215 hrs
Place: Kinokuniya, KLCC, KL

Caucasian Tourist in bermudas and sunglasses in his hair asked me the time. Looks like he might have gotten stood up on holiday. Does he not have a handphone to tell him the time?