Plastic Wastage

Sun blast mid-afternoon en route from the Starbs at Bras Basah was moderated by a fine spray from the clouds at two or three points, something like they were using in various global capitals now to counter unseasonable heat waves. With the Box closing early at Bugis in prep for the CNY dinners, it had to be the other Starbs iteration there opp McDonalds. (For some other note-taking last week an outdoor chair at the Lavender MRT McD’s had been taken. Nothing human was alien to the Roman playwright Terence.) There at Bugis the stop today was for the noon’s glue sniffer on the No. 21 going out to KV for lunch. Certainly a first of its particular kind that. The mushroom puffers had been caught over the years at Wadi; perhaps guys on something stronger 3-4 times around the traps. Even drunks were rare in Sing, at least in the Malay quarter. Late thirties perhaps the 21 Chinaman, tattoos high on his thigh protruding from his shorts. On his calfs those common cigarette burn-like marks dotted. Holding the orange plastic bag whose bottom he squeezed in order to draw up the fumes a bit like a mother does her baby on her breast. One lady quickly left the seat beside him; a short time later the two chaps who had been engaged in animated conversation the other side of the bar on the same bench followed suit. From the wheelchair area opposite the slight fume that was released from the bag every so often wafted over. Perhaps 6-7 times the sniffer had sought the vapour in order to smooth out the ride along Kallang Bahru there and Boon Keng approaching the lunch hour. At the best of times it could be a bumpy ride through that half-industrialised quarter of Boon Keng. On the corner of Bendemeer sat the Lucerne building, cheap office space most likely. Darwin Interiors, Genoa Industries and the tyre outlet where the man alighted at the stop prior to Lavender Street held precious little allure. Would glue like that register on any of the tests the authorities used here? (Tests for dope for return travellers picked up traces two weeks later.) Was the chap completely reckless, didn’t care? It was uncertain. Sniffers were quiet, shy and solitary types, as this example suggested.