More Games People Play

The Pram Brigade
The pram brigade. Well ok, you see loads of China nationals here too and yes, the elderly and occasionally the wheelchair bound.

That is what this new (it is almost 7 years old and I guess that is relatively new) estate is all about. Couples (married or otherwise) pushing their infants and toddlers around in prams.

This is far better than where moi was before. At least if I wanna strike up a rapport or I find the baby really cute, I pinch their cheeks or go all goo-ga-ga over them.

But like Wei Zhao who is in the care and hands of Liz, the Indonesian maid employed to look after him, you get to see all kinds of parenting skills.

Parents who actually plant ideas into their kids and have them wanting the things done to them when they actually would have just sat still in their prams and not break out into a big sob.

Sample this:

Mom: "You want Daddy to carry you, don't you?"

Toddler, sitting still at first but suddenly lighting up at the subliminal suggestion and reach his hands out for Daddy.

Daddy, in the meantime, was a wee bit slow, so junior broke out into a BIG SOB.

At first, I carried and hugged Wei Zhao a few times but now, I have stopped and limited my playtime with him to just fondling him and then quickly retiring back to my room.

I don't want to be accused of spoiling him and making him break out into a bawl just because he wants to be cuddled and hugged and carried (O god, you mean kids aren't supposed to be done that?).

But I know for a fact that everytime I sit down to play with him, the maid would fill me in on the household goings-on. Very strange goings on, it seems.

Sex, Lies And VideoCams - More Games People Play - Mind, Bedroom, Boardroom And God Knows What Other Games
Of course I know it is strange. The bisexual father (he has admitted this to me and the "wife" and maid do not know) had placed an ad in the gay classifieds.

That was how I picked up this room. And in the other room, he apparently has two straight tenants. And all three of them (wife and tenants) are in the same age bracket!

Liz the maid has a family back home but while she was working in HongKong, she had a white boyfriend. And she isn't on good terms with her in-laws just like Wei Zhao's mom.

Father comes back late in the night and sleeps outside in the hallway and seriously this couple has hardly any physical nor any communicative contact.

Mother works and when she comes back, the kid is asleep and she will watch TV or some computer clips and goes on the Internet or put on a face mask and yes there is a little tur of false hair she possesses.

To add to all the sex, lies and videocams, when the maid asks if I was single, I said yes and I had cohabited with a girl before but now we have broken up!

What do you expect me to do in this situation? Tell the truth and risk being drawn into their familial confusion?

Child Development
Liz, the Indonesian maid, has nothing but complaints against the mom and of course against Wei Zhao.

Complaints about how the mom is rude and loud towards (and yes, abrogating her maternal duties) her and how Wei Zhao can't speak yet at this age (gosh, even a 22 month old kid is already under so much pressure to talk, walk and god knows what else) and a whole host of misbehavior and safety issues at home.

I am steering clear of Liz. She is onto moi, I think, and I am not the least bit interested. I have ticked her off once already and I know she is stirring up loads of gossip and trouble at home. She had deliberately left urine and faeces in the toilet bowl and hing her lingerie on my bamboo pole when there were others available.

The fault must lie squarely with the father and the mother for throwing up all this confusion.

That Was Hair Therapy?

Hair Therapy - Or Was It?
Of course I still have those long flowy locks that are tousled into a nest of messy hair all over. Except that it has been three months and my hair does need a trim, a shape and a cut.

So with that in mind and to keep my hair growing long forever more, I stepped into this hair salon and a team of two hair stylists promptly drew moi into its sales pitch of either a herbal hair treatment or an electrode-based one on a machine.

A monitor scan showed up moi's 100x magnified mirror image of hair follicles and moi's never before close-up view of his precious scalp.

And what a scalp it was! There were all these white gluey smudges clinging themselves for dear life at the base of the hair canal which the stylists duly attributed to grime and blockage that prevented hair growth and that was precsiely what the treatment was gonna help eliminate!

A bit taken in by all the hype our foreign friends were drumming up and assured that there will be a before and after scan, moi decided to go with it.

Spraying on what seems like an anti-freeze (which they claimed to be antiseptic) and slapping on layers upon layers of gooey "mantana" herbal jelly (both of which were freezing cold), my hair was left to stand for 20 minutes.

Talk about freezing up my scalp, head and brains!

When the time was up, the "after" scan showed up the exact same smudges and the team of two then proceeded to hard sell their package deal of a 6-session hair therapy treatment which of course I declined.

That will be positively the last time I will set foot in this hair salon! Enough already!

That probably explains the trickle of customers it is having!

They Have It All
While sipping tea and waiting for my hair to be cut, I picked up several copies of the salon's Japanese hair-style magazines and what a variety of styles there were! Both long and short.

Compare that to the one style we invariably have here!

Some dictates maybe?

The Conspicuous Consumer Isn't So Conspicuous After All
I have stated many times how we all live in our own worlds and move within our own circle of friends and associates.

It is the same with shopping and dining! Unless you are an avid shopper like moi now is (to a certain extent), you find that the conspicuous consumer is probably just a fashion street consumer!

Price tags usually in the range of tens of dollars!

It is the same with food. The hawker centres and the coffee-shops aren't getting much cheaper.