Bak Chor Mee And Breaking Routines

I suggested that we have breakfast at the Da Lian bak chor mee stall beneath the Workers' Party headquarters at Syed Alwi Road*. The noodle isn't spectacular, but it's a nice change and it's good to break routines once in a while.

Some habits are hard to break though. You had your usual kopi-si-kosong and I my teh-si.

An old woman sat down at the next table and wondered aloud what she wanted to eat. In hokkien, she complained that everything was sianz [uninteresting].

You said, "Guess life is like that sometimes."

I didn't say anything. I was too busy searching for the pieces of tur kwa in my bak chor mee.

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* As ironic as it sounds, there IS a bak chor mee stall under the Workers' Party headquarters.

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The Typical And Atypical

The typical consists of living apart for the entire work week. On friday nights, he picks me up together with all my marking load and we go to his place where I would stay for the weekend.

His current job requires him to be at the office seven days a week. I don't have to go back to school during the weekend, but then, I bring work back so technically I'm working a seven day week too.

Marking my students' work in his empty 3-room HDB flat can be rather lonely, but I am able to stay focused, usually completing what I set out to finish for the weekend. Sometimes, I think this arrangement helps me stay sane from the hectic life of a teacher in Singapore.

The atypical can be deceptively simple like a dinner on a Wednesday evening at the cheap steamboat buffet at Marina South. He loves it for the char siew while I target the live prawns and (when the live prawns have all been eaten) the frozen prawns.

No More Bruises

Why is a HDB car park so full on a Friday night? Don't the residents go out?

"Haven't seen a new bruise the whole week," you announced as you finally backed into the only available parking slot.

"You sound disappointed."

Later at home, I could see that the old bruise on your right tricep has started to heal. The centre of the bruise has regained the usual healthy skin colour leaving a swirling ring of purple.

Mysterious Bruises

I am worried.

You woke up with 2 bruises the size of fifty cent coins, one on each arm. You don't remember what could have possibly caused them and I don't remember seeing them the night before.

You said, "I know someone who had such mysterious bruises before. It could be caused by some blood-related disease."

"Is it serious?"

"Fatal," you said.

"You should see a doctor tomorrow."

You said, "Let's wait and see if more of such bruises crop up."