jukebox playin' :
Neither One Of Us - Jennifer Hudson
As I am writing this, I can hear a group of merry-makers over in one of the second-storey flats in the opposite block yelling and speaking at the top of their voices -- a consequence, no doubt, of a little too much after dinner alcohol. A peek from my bedroom window around fifteen minutes ago revealed that 'said neighbours (half a dozen of them or so) were seated in a circle playing a game of cards. Time check now: almost half past midnight. I'm surprised no men in blue have arrived to interrupt their little get-together.
But it IS chinese new year afterall... Everyone is entitled to some late-night fun once in awhile I guess.
Two blocks away, not too far from where I'm staying, there is a different sort of gathering at the newly-erected white tent by the children's playground; A mourning procession is taking place. I wonder who was it that has passed away, leaving behind grieving family and friends during this festive season. Pretty awful time of the year to be having a funeral, isn't it?
It's funny but I don't think I've ever heard a sad/mournful chinese new year song before; they're mostly rather loud and jovial. =p
In the next room, I can hear my twelve-year old niece talking animatedly to my younger brother about the 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle she had just finished assembling. My wry thought; it's certainly way past her bedtime but then, tomorrow isn't a school day anyway. I can hear the television in the living room still switched on but I can bet that my mom is already fast asleep on the sofa like what she is always wont to do every night ever since my dad passed away five/four years ago.
Seems like an age has passed by since then.
Just received word earlier this evening that one of my uncles over on the paternal side of the family, has been warded at TTSH. Will have to accompany Mom to visit him tomorrow. Not that I care much about him. When the news that he was already in the third stage of cancer reached me, I was hardly moved -- Suffice to say, there are just some people in this world who are not very nice when they were hale and healthy.
Nevertheless, I detest hospitals. Too many unpleasant memories. Am definitely not looking forward to tomorrow. But gotta make the trip for my mom's sake. I think she hates hospitals even more than I do seeing how our last trip to one barely a month ago was to witness the passing on of her older brother. Did I mention that I've got no more first-uncles on the maternal side of my family? That's really sad lah...
Too many random thoughts tonight, definitely. (Nothing better to do liddat... LoL )
