went caroling with the medichoir yesterday evening at sgh. we sang at ward 6-, which was a hematology ward i think. whatever the case, it was a depressing experience. walking into the ward, i saw the shrunken, curled up forms of mostly old men, huddled under the blankets or staring indifferently ahead. when the lot of us, all gaily dressed in dark red tops trudged into their section, they looked at us disinterested stares, though some repsonded when we talked to them. one small, old man was clearly happy to see us. he sang out "jingle bells, jingle bells" when he saw us, and lifted his limbs in the air. another patient, a younger but slightly retarded man followed us around the whole ward and would blow his whistle at the end of each song. after the whole thing, i just wanted to get away, away from the fact that we were singing all those happy songs in front of those awfully sick people.


and by some strange coincidence, while driving along the cte tunnel today, a motorcycle hit the concrete divider while trying to exit the expressay and the rider was flung off. i couldn't stop since i was on the main flow of traffic, but...it was awful, really awful. it was like a stunt, you know where you see those crazy guys try to jump over several cars on their motorcycles, just that this wasn't a stunt, this was real. the guy could have been killed, if the cars behind him couldn't stop in time or if he punctures his lungs. i didn't see him fall (i was probably doing seventy or so) but i hope he didn't fall into the path of an oncoming car. it reminded me of the newlywed couple who were killed just a few days ago in nz, and it reminds me of...sometimes memories hurt so much you wished you could forget them. then life would be much easier lived.


on a lighter note, i was at sgh quite early yesterday, and i saw mediacorp film a scene at the foodcourt. they had a bit of problem trying to tell people not to talk so loudly while standing nearby (all those aunties and annoying kids who like to talk as if they're at the market) and the nosey ones inside the food court that pressing their faces against the glass isn't going to beautify the scene. i mean, the camera's pointing at you, for goodness sake. and it doesn't mean that not being able to hear what the actors say means you can comment loudly,"EH TA MEN ZAI PAI XI LEH! HAHAHA!" they had to do the scene again because of that, and the actor i recognized was zhou chu ming. there was a little boy whose job was to eat a bowl of noodles, and the director, this pai kia-looking guy, had to teach him how to roll up the noodles using his fork. cute.