[ilikeoldchangke]

I spent the next few hours circling the entire park that is filled with weekend crowd. I came across entire family of otters, I saw monitor lizards digging on the ground for earthworms.

Squirrels, monkeys, the black swans and even some wild parrots. Just no signs of the newspaper seller.

I walked up and down the same stretch a few times before going to other quiet spots in the garden. I saw some colleagues and contemplated whether to ask them if they happen to see a newspaper seller around but I stopped myself.

It’s going to make me look stupid.

I saw some used newspaper by the foot of a rubbish bin. It’s wet and probably came from one of the families having their picnic nearby. Passer bys gave me weird looks when the saw me trying to read the newspaper on the ground.

It was from one month ago. I picked it up and threw it into the bin.


1pm

I went for lunch at coronation plaza and brought my ticket to the same counter where I bought the ticket from.

“Hi, errm , I think I won something. I said to the lady at the counter.”

The lady fed my ticket into the machine and did a double take at the winnings.

“Hello , you need to go head office to claim prizes more than $5000.” She said.

“Oh, where is the head office ? “ I asked.

She gave me a slip of paper with the address and opening hours. Guess I’ll just head down over lunch the next day then.


My phone rang and it was Sam. I was expecting this call.
He told me his truck got into a bit of accident and his work will be delayed on one of my site.

“Very unlucky leh, your weird phone call about truck hit people, now my truck really hit wall man.” Sam lamented.

I tried to probe a little, asking if he is ok and what happened.

Sam told me he lent his truck to his neighbour where his industrial office is. He got a stroke and crashed the vehicle.

“oh dear, is he ok ? “

“Literally up lorry. Die liao”

“Oh my god..” I said, pretending to be unaware of what is happening.

Sam asked for an extension of his project which I readily agreed. I told him we will sort out the paper work back in office.



5th November 2018
12.30pm

I waited for my queue number to be called and presented my winning ticket. I was showed to a lounge while the staff prepares the cheque for me.
She asked if I would like to make a donation to charity, I declined.

Not because I’m stingy or heartless. It’s because I don’t dare to touch the money. It’s $200000. It’s a large sum. I don’t know if I can touch it.
I honestly don’t know what to do with it.
I’m not exactly a spender and I save almost 50% of my pay cheque every month.

I took the cheque and looked at the number and my name on it. It’s surreal. It’s going to take me 2 years of work plus good bonus and not spending a single cent to get this amount.
I deposited it into my bank account before taking a taxi back to work.

My office has a view of Botanic garden. At least a small section of it anyway. Every couple of hours, I would just look outside, hoping I would see the newspaper seller again.


The days stretched to weeks and I began to experiment with the different combination of circumstances that gave me the chance to meet the newspaper seller.

I met him during my jog on a Friday and the skies were overcast. Then it started to rain.

I started jogging everyday and I did extra laps on Fridays.

Nothing.

When I saw it was going to rain, I immediately changed and ran out if I’m not working. It didn’t matter that it’s 11pm at night, I ran in the rain along the same stretch hoping to see the man but he’s not there.

If I’m in the office and it starts to rain, I will grab an umbrella and walked to the same stretch.

Nothing.

A month went by and I never gave up. There must be a reason why I met that mysterious man.

I refuse to believe something like this is a one-off incident.


21st December 2018
Friday.
11am


I’m going to go on leave for the last 2 weeks of the year and 21st is my last working day for 2018. The whole office is in the festive mood and my boss, Alvin, asked me out for lunch.

“Eh Jerry, You got lunch plans ? “
“Nope. You want to grab something together ? “ I said while dropping everything I was doing just to look at Alvin and reply.

Alvin is going to retire in a few years time and he’s known to be very temperamental. He used to be in the military before joining the organisation.
He has mellowed down a lot lately. Age catches up with everyone. I guess no matter how bad ass you are, you will reach an age where you finally decide it’s time to take things a bit easy.

Alvin belonged to the generation that demands respect even before he earned it. Not that he doesn’t deserve any but you know, he has that I’m older, therefore you respect me kind of setup in his head. He has issues talking to some of the young hires and always gets me to be the go between.
Not that I’m very old but I guess he sees the different between an early Gen X and the subsequent ones.

The 1st time I was scolded by him was because I replied him while drafting an email without looking at him. He told me off in front of the whole office.
“You look the man in eye when he’s talking to you!”

He said it with a raised voice like I committed some insubordination sin that silenced the whole office. From the corner of my eye I could see a few seniors shaking their head, they probably already placed bets when it would happen to me.

I knew immediately if I said nothing, or rebutted him for the outburst, the issue will escalate.

Saying nothing will only spur him to scold me again. The worse thing I can do is to give him a ‘blur fuck’ expression, pretending that I am unaware of his anger.

To rebut him will be to get on his nerves, thereby exacerbating the situation.

I don’t believe in wasting my breath with people who are not in the right frame of mind to listen. I believe in solving the problem by tackling the root cause.


The warning came as a shock to me, I wasn’t expecting to be treated like this by another adult but whatever. All eyes were on me and I stopped what I was doing and stood up.

I see no merit whatsoever in being macho or talking down to my boss so I apologised immediately.

A simple sorry will not suffice for old timers like Alvin.
‘Sorry’ is what you say, Alvin strikes me as someone who is more interested in what you will do.
I have to hit him back fast without giving him enough time to continue brooding about dumb shit like this.

“I’m sorry. It will not happen again. What was it that you want to discuss again ? ” I said, throwing the ball back to his court.

This way, if he continued scolding me for something trivial, he would be disregarding the task and issue at hand. Things like this drive old birds like Alvin nuts.


There was a 3 second stand off before Alvin asked me to go into his office.
It was all work related from the moment I stepped in and over the years, I learned all his pet peeves and dislikes. It’s one of the reason why I successfully cement my position in the team. Not just because of my academic achievements.

It’s because I knew how to handle Alvin. I knew how far I could push him without him stabbing me with his golden bayonet in his office.
Sometimes I know Alvin wanted to strangle me but he can’t. End of the day, the decisions we make, it’s all for the team.

Alvin has gotten rid of many people over the years but I know I’m here to stay.
I knew I could stay because Alvin don’t hate me like he hates the other scholars. Though I must say, sometimes I wonder if he hated himself since he’s one himself.

Alvin is tan, so tan that he gets mistaken as non-chinese frequently. He goes fishing every weekend and is someone that will feel right at home in the wild or among the green. It’s like the old soldier in him never left.

His temper is his biggest flaw to be honest. He has a very low ignition point and gets triggered easily.

“Let’s go eat at Adam road food centre ?” He said.

“Sure. I thought you didn’t like going there because of the bad exhaust? “ I teased.

“I’m on half day today. I’m heading back after that. Ahha. “

At 1pm sharp, I saw Alvin walk out of his office and I don’t want him to come over to my table to remind me it’s time.

I left the half-written email to a colleague from the ministry and immediately grabbed my wallet and phone.

Alvin drove and he parked at one of the lots outside the food centre along the road where the private houses are. Upon arriving, Alvin remained seated, and he continued talking.

We chatted in the car and he asked about work, if I’m happy, basically life in general.
A casual end of the year and I’m about to do your appraisal chat.

I followed his que that he is ready to get out of his car and opened the door.