Flat Spot (Aug23)

Running aground somewhat quart after three after lunch and the walk round to the library. As in most cities, refuge at the library when the church or other sanctuary was not available. Such vacancy indeed that in the end Yanasagaran was messaged for a possible meet. (The man must be given more of a chance, his circs. appreciated and due allowance granted, especially in the month of Ramadan. The example of the best Muslims in the community has rubbed off a bit.) A look for Eileen Chang at a couple of the stores fruitless. 1960s - 70s HK Chang keeps popping up in references; time she was given a look. Even the young tubby lad running the bookstore at the base of Bras Basah Complex knew of Eileen Chang. Recently they had had her on their shelves, Tubby remembering the green spine. At lunch a woman with young boy at the KV table could not be judged whether maid or mother. A little attractive and with fine quiet manner. Eventually a glimpse of the little fellow as he hoed into his food delivered the shining essence of the mother in the triangle of nose and mouth. The genetic encoding that gives people such joy and reassurance. Sreco moja! Oci moje drage. My fortune! My dear eyes!... The woman’s eyes had dimmed over the years; early on she had gleamed brightly beside her own mother just like this little mite now sitting opposite her. Ogledalo moje, Mirror mine, fond and loving Montenegrin mothers will also coo over their children. Another kiddie show in practice here for the weekend presumably. The children’s parents would not be so far removed from the fun of animation either, easy to imagine their up-tilted faces on the chairs in the audience and pointing out features to the little ones at their side. In that echo chamber the practice volume over the sound system that had been installed was like a sudden burst of terrorists onto the concourse with all guns blazing. Sing-along tunes in fake kiddie slang jolly-jolly-jolly, aren’t we all having so much fun. (Did this kind of production still work for the screen generation of little ones?) At the pissoire notes had been embedded in a little groove on the top of the unit which without glasses could not be deciphered properly. BOOK BUGS?... (You think you might be able to take a leak in Singapore without being assaulted by the marketing you’ve got another think coming.) Bugsters’ Bash was promised here on the little painted back-drop back of stage. The performers in the felt get-up might be closely monitored here—every chance of someone expiring in the middle of the routines. The overcast was a godsend for all today. One could imagine how disturbed Yana would have been when the low-level babble at KV always had the man shifting in his seat and casting toward the door. “The Hook” one of the women at the Hanis tables had been mining; (biz. strategy rather than gothic/suspense). But that was nothing. Out on North Bridge footing back a young Mainland tourist he may have been wheeling his own and his girl’s suitcases proclaimed boldly on his chest like the proper contemporary Superhero, Conquer Everything.