Saturday, January 26, 2008
Hmmm. This weird concept suddenly hit me. If you say people are the IMBA of the IMBAs, doesnt that make them.. BA?
Anyway, on to the not so abstract stuff.
Im not sure why, but my eyes suddenly decided that it would do me good to be brought into the world of walking sticks and umbrellas. Everywhere I go, I seem to take notice of many MANY elderly people using a stick of sorts, a sort of a fusion of umbrellas and walking sticks. For convenience sake, I will call it the umbrella walking stick. I can tell that they are what they are because they look like umbrellas but have a rubber piece at the tip which also make them walking sticks. I think they've been around for a long time, just didnt take significant notice of them.
And I wonder to myself. EXACTLY WHAT KIND OF A PURPOSE ARE THEY SUPPOSE TO SERVE?
You see, if people need walking sticks to walk, It would probably be very uncomfortable for them to walk without it. By making an umbrella walking stick, doesnt it mean that they cant walk around when they have to use the umbrella walking stick as an umbrella?
Then you might think,
"But then it helps cause they might be caught in the rain and the umbrella walking stick comes in handy what. Some more this way they dont have to bring so many things lor, so convenient. I think I can buy my grandma this for her birthday."Okay, fair enough. So, lets take this scenario.
On a sunny day, this elderly man is waiting to cross a traffic light next to his disabled-friendly HDB block. Then just as if a higher order was trying to mock him, the sky turns dark and it starts to rain.
But alas, he has already thought of this situation, he has just bought himself the newest edition of the umbrella walking stick. He then smirks and proceeds to swing his walking stick 180 degrees and opens it as an umbrella to the amazement of the people around him. As he stays dry and the people around him do not, the people applaude him and praise him for his foresight in anticipating such situations.
Then the traffic light turns green and the people quickly cross the road trying not to step on puddles of the water in the process. Then the driver who is now waiting for the light to turn green notices something strange and thinks to himself,
"Eh, why the old man never cross ah?" Then almost as if he had attained enlightenment, he realises the problem and tries to boast to the person beside him in the car.
"Eh, I know why that uncle never cross leh. Cause he use his walking stick as an umbrella then now he cannot walk across!" The person replies,
"Oh. But damn cool right? his walking stick also acts as an umbrella leh." And the people in the car proceed to laugh amongst themselves, silently drawing inspiration from the smarty-pants inventor who'd actually thought of inventing something this brilliant.
Outside in the now pouring rain, the old man is in a dillema he had not anticipated. He thinks to himself,
"How ah? If I want to cross then I must close my umbrella walking stick and use it as a walking stick leh. But then like that I will get wet mah. So cannot. I must use my other option. I think I shall walk back to the void deck of my HDB block, at least there I can stay out of the rain and sit down on the stools provided by the HDB specially for people like me."Then as he turns around, he is slapped in the face as he realises something.
"Wait a minute, but to get back to the HDB block I still need to close my umbrella walking stick and use it as a walking stick what. Then like that I still get wet right? Wah lau. I should have walked back inside straight away lah just now. Now the rain become so big, some more I still need to close my umbrella. I will get even more wet."His last discernible thought was
"SIAN", before he drowns himself in curses for trying to act smart by buying an umbrella walking stick.
Okay wait. So what is the moral of the story ahh?
"Please, lah. Just buy a normal walking stick like everyone else and bring along an umbrella. Okay?"Sighs. I think I think too much sometimes. Just a 1 min walk from the bus stop to my block gives me the chance to produce this much rubbish. SIAN.
Alone in darkness at
12:44 PM
