And here I thought that I would get over you. Really.
I told all my friends & family, I would..
They were not convinced, I don't blame them
But I was so sure of it..
For how long have I known you
I've known my husband longer
We have not even have a decent conversation between us
I don't even know what's your favourite colour
& you don't know mine
For because of this, I know it won't last for long
I would get over you
I told you
& you said, "Fat chance"
"My magic is stronger than you think... You'll be wanting more of me once I'm gone..."
I laughed it off...it was nothing but a schoolgirl's crush
I really would get over you...
My heart worries
but it still thinks of you
Always, always in my heart
For how far I've walked
Always, you are in my heart

A perfect dream

So wat have i done?
I joined a fan club, bought concert ticket & even went to the airport to meet their arrival....
This should be the work of someone in their teens going googoo-gaga over a rock band.. not as if i'm a senior citizen, but this type of thing should have passed me by like 10 yrs back. Still, age is nothing but a number. I do like listening to music or watching movies and make an effort in keeping wif wat's hot & wat's not in the entertainment world. This is partly by chance as in today's world, these infos are available at a click of the button... In essence, in the history of Mai lifetime, I have never been such a 'groupie'... i.e., until now...

Somebody made an obvious remark(duh), "hey, you're married, y do dis kinda thing?" SO? i'm not going as a teenybopper screaming my lungs out hoping to in the end that we'll get married etc, etc... well, maybe one of them would see me & might kinda fall for me but after finding out i'm taken, he'd be broken-hearted & it'd inspire him to write another chart-topping hit 4 their upcoming album..one can dream, can one not? :)

Ada apa dengan Peterpan?("What's with Peterpan?")
Not from Never,Neverland...but these 6 man-band hail from Bandung, Indonesia... I dunno their full history & dun intend to narrate it here anyway..Wat i love is their songs.. The difference is very obvious, if u know malay mainstream music..their songs are more abt broken hearts rather than in-love but the lyrics are very strong, clear & sincerely straight. Not gagging mushy things like "i'll die if i dun have ur love" stuff...When i hear their songs, i feel transported..i know wat the feeling exactly is..It's not just abt catchy beats & tunes..
Of course, these songs gave arise to my curiosity...Who are these ppl? What makes them tick? How can it that they have such fluidity in a simple song? When chups said they're flying up here for a showcase, i grab the chance to see them up close & personal..maybe i wun get to ask the above questions..wuddaheck, meeting them will be more than a perfect dream..





Not many picture there..am not a paparazzi..besides, my dgcam's memory card was low..can only hold 9 frames coz sumbody go & save a folder full of their honeymoon pix in it..A good job too, as i duwan to be responsible fer blinding these poor boys from flashes hoever temporary dat may be...

this goes on & on & on & on & on & on & on......

it's starting again...i can feel 'em un my bones, literally... everytime it rains, the aches begin, i want to try stretch out but for the fear of unhingeing my back, i refrained..i can only lie on the side..the doc couldn't find anything wrong other than diagnosing muscle tear at my derriere...& please dun even start on how i'm getting older...Newflash: WE ARE ALL GETTING OLDER-day by day, min by min, nanosec by nanosec...

My mother nagged n blamed for my refusing to drink milk & so she believed i'm suffering from a lack of calcum. Then why dun i drink milk? I will vomit. Strangely though, I thrive on ice-creams. Speaking of which, this calcium thing shd be abt balanced by now from the amount of ice-creams i devoured in my lifetime.

My father, the advocate for healthy living in the most natural way(read:diet/exercise) & who is one hell of a masseuse will jab his fingers in any part of my body & proclaim that he could feel my stomach/thighs/calves/back/etc cold & hard as ice.That is because, ___________(fil in any brand of cold soft drink) has induced bad winds to clot up my arteries and therefore 'jammed up' its systems. He wil then start 2 massage & I will start 2 scream (he insisted that he only applied 20% pressure...a 100% would kill me, yah, no kidding!)

Hubbi is frustrated..luckily not wif me..he just dunno wat else 2 do 2 ease the pain i'm having..
This sweet boy had been doing all the house chores after coming home from work..

I compared notes with a younger cousin who recently got a muscle sprain in her neck..She got the same muscle relaxants as i had been prescribed..It only relaxed her for abt 3hrs after which the pain comes back in hot spasms..same boat.

Calling for Back-up!!!!

i want my mom... strange how dis may sound, superwife asking for help, but then, she's desperate..

My back sprain has put me off work for a bit more than a week now. The waist & the hips not communicating to each other. One wants to bend and the other just stays resolutely still..leaving me in stitches of pain dat i can only go to the wc if escorted. I'm typing this while standing actually so for now superwife's hanging her cape...

note to self: must get better before the 17th... iskk....

Two of my dearest sohabah had tied the knot(to each other) not too long ago... May Allah bless your lives always...

We had an 'open house' last sunday...literally open as our main gate was MIA.. we had to call back the contractor to extend the gate size to accommodate the new doorknob. A supposed 2-day job dragged to almost a week. What infuriated Hubbi the most was that the same gal who answered the fone gave 3 different names without even making the effort of disguising her voice. Yah rite like we can't tell... At the long last to get his point across, Hubbi had to threaten a formal complaint in a very loud voice in his office and let the gal know that his colleagues heard it all..hehe...cool.. they delivered & we got it at a much reduced price...

Apart from that, the event went great. Due to constraint of space & time, we had to limit the guests to close family & relatives & most of them came.. We'll have another big one for our friends, ok Aai? I promise...

We watched Xmen the day after that. A disappointment...tsk tsk... You could tell the difference this new director did... How could he just kill off the major characters just like that. Cyclops was one of the pioneer Xman & was reputed to take over Xavier's reins. Yes, The Phoenix is a Level 5 mutant but Cyclops can certainly hold his own... To go down without so much of a fight...Love conquers all...huh...I doubt so..To refer back to the marvel comics, that wasn't how cyclops/Xavier died...& i thot The Last Stand had apocalypse making the appearance. Surprise, surprise, a lame excuse for a storyline came up. A mutant cure...duh~...Wolverine softened up, Rogue the one wif the attitude besides Wolvie decided to be cured of her mutancy...aiyoh.. As for Magneto, well maybe Ian's better suited for solving codes..Colossus had a script of exactly 3 words in the whole movie. Maybe the writers' ran out of ink?
Well, I'll remember Xmen's first 2 moovees...& oh yeah, i can always revert to the comics for the good ole whammo

life's getting more interesting by the minute... patience is not just mere words to describe a state of controlling emotion/feeling. It's not mere words someone says to you when faced with trying situations.
the term u never know someone unless u live under one roof..maybe cliche but oh so true...
the need to prove how much u're willing to go for that someone...another mushy cliche if i may say but unless you're going through the same thing, dun tell me, "i know..." Cos u dun... u have no idea...

all hail the Sisterhood of Magnetic Chains...

special tribute to u after an unbelievably amazing day..it had been ages since we meet up, so thankful we'd not lost the special touch..

initial plan was to ice-skate, i was having doubts on my balancing capabilities. But after assuring myself dat i couldn't possibly do much worse than the other skaters in the rink, the counter staff said the rink were closed after 4.30 for their icec-hockey tournament...darn, we headed to k-box but cancelled the niat to sing our hearts out when we saw the pool room..It was certainly no less fun than ice-skating & definitely no less embarrassing hehehe...wat wif the wacky techniques; dunking the cue ball, posing like pros while taking aims, play-cheat in more ways than one especially aai's compulsive itchy hands which must always re-arrange the balls whenever they rolled off..

needless to say, we rule at eating out..good food wif great company is guaranteed kodak moments. Dun underestimate the power of us polishing off the food even piranhas would bow in deference..

movies, scrabble & gossip till wee hours interspersed wif loads of junk food (fossil fuel's a clear winner) i can literally feel the pile of pounds then.

these go out to u:
aai, always belting out peterpan/dewa/some sob malay songs even at 3 am in the morning during scrabble dat had almost put all of us to sleep...after a stellar 1st round, i lost the 2nd round..u purposely did it ah?

nadz, u've been super..letting us crash ur beautiful home..literally... the neighbors must think that we were some idiots having a smashing party(we're no idiots though cos idiots wont know how to have a smashing partee) & hope ur other half didn't regret his consent too much hee hee..

kak yati, ur bubbly presence nevertheless entertained us all...esp when u were posing in a 'brokeback mountain' way at the pool room. i swear the other tables were just jealous & annoyed wif us all.. & yes, we learnt to take ur car decals' sign seriously (grin)

zackeroo, u gave us some out-of-this-world pool techniques (skipping ball move, aim 1 & shoot another move..just to name a few..) introduced us to fossil fuel & made yummy breakfast wif the other gals when aai & me finally passed out in the morn.

Pity..

i dun like wat u did... i juz dun like... wat did u think? Did u figure u could just use people continuously? Did u think other people will not tire off your endless begging and needless self-pity? Blood run thicker than water..well maybe scientifically..but when u use dat kind of argument more than wats necessary..all the blood in the bank would dry out... Relationships sour, money runs out & dat leaves u where?? Exactly in the same hole as u were in the beginning..probably deeper cos u owe ppl left,right,front,back...Did u think the constant nagging & whining are music to our ears? Did u think ppl would drop everything and rescue u the very instant u cry "Help!" ? Who are u doing this for? Your loved ones? Do they appreciate or do they even know? Or are they using u just as u are using others? U used me when i dun even know u...now that i know u, u are trying to take more & more out of me. Look around your self-centered self. Who dun have problems? Who wouldn't give their right hands to have their troubles magically disappear at the blink of the eye? But life dun operate that way. The word pity is now so over-rated. Get over yourself. Newsflash: the world dun owe u nothing.U keep saying u need the help. Truth of the matter; the ppl who helped u are the ones who deserve it more than u ever do.    

Doing the cross-country again.. jw -> sc -> pr -> jw ... very soon. In fact shockingly & nerve-wreckingly 2 days away from MIL's move to wl..the buyer claimed to have been kicked out of their relative's house...called their lawyer who in turn called BIL this morning... Thank god the flat they're moving into has just been vacated...in fact only yesterday... i've to get back to sc asap now... i'm only here to do project prep work for my k1 class..we're (read: I'm) making a file on sharks... haai~

well, love to stick ard but time's money here... speaking of which, both are what i'm very much in lacking....

planning for a short holiday... hubbi wanted to climb mt kinabalu... prospects of me climbing it not so good...unless they have a travellator installed within a glass panels to deter icky insects from climbing up my pants... ok, maybe not a travellator but could we have the panels at the very least, pls? neways, price are quite steep, & since both of us need to get back in shape, we'll KIV the kinabalu climb & go to a more exotic location wif less taxing journey...

Hmmm...Krabi?
Maybe..

Remember bout the dreamy dining set? Well, turns out it was not that dreamy...found a better looking, better quality one & which is $200 lesser than the 1st! Woohooo.......

on second thought...how far had the "mighty" fall....since when had large inanimate objects such as sofas & dining sets be the focus of my eyes.... *sigh*..dis is 1 of the many life hazards ; me becoming a full-fledged 'makcik² tupperware'
(note to self: need to shop for more small inanimate objects which can be worn on self - clothes, bags, shoes.....)

Scene #1:
u're on the way home, making your way to the trains, minding your own business. Suddenly u were startled when a grp of 5 boys surrounded u. 1 of them carried a baseball bat. They made catcalls, taunted u & tried to coax u go with them. U said no, they accused u of being rebellious. The circle grew smaller & smaller. Paralyzed with fear, u couldn't think of anythin else to do except cry. Just as u thought u might faint out of fear, 3 other boys came to your rescue. They asked what happened & were u allright... The 3 boys wanted to help, the taunting boys jeered and shifted their attention from u to your rescuers. 1 of your saviours told u to run for it & u did... U didn't know wat happened but shortly after dat u saw your rescuers making their way to the trains, bleeding.. your heart went out to them, though u were nervous as hell... They accompanied u to the bus station, fearing the taunting boys' vengeance & wished u well.. U were thanking God so hard that u forgot to ask the 3 boys for their names. Now the very least u wish u knew who they were so u & ur family could thank them properly....

Scene #2:
Ur mom & dad, after hearing the incident insisted to go back to the crime scene and then make a police report. They were shocked to see that the scene took place not on a deserted alley way but on the pedestrians' shelter walkway opposite a bustling 24-hr restaurant. The nerve of these young punks, your dad muttered angrily..U went to the nearby police post and lodged a statement, or tried to... the officer didn't seem surprised nor expressed concern for ur well-being. Instead demanded if u knew the taunting boys personally or might have been the one to incite the whole scenario (the way u were dressed, u wouldn't even tempt the most hard-core Cassanova)... U were still in shock so ur words could not come out right, hence the bored,impatient look on the officer's face. Since u could not remember much of the boys' description ( wat did the officer expect, u had never seen them in ur whole entire life + u were in shock...) the officer kept repeating that there wasn't much to be done. The officer asked again, insisted if u knew the boys & whether u'd exchanged contact nos beforehand, u didn't know what to think..was the officer hallucinating the whole time or were u? Then the officer just said offhandedly that if such things were to recur again, u shd be contacting the police asap, to quote the officer, "tell them: i have handphone & i'll call the police so if u dare, touch me la..." Now, hadn't u mention 1 of them had a bat, before u could say boo, he would have smash it into smithereens, if u're lucky, that's all they would have done...& the very last thing in the world u'd do is to taunt/tempt the taunters back especially when u knew u were outnumbered, could be outrun & un-outfitted with an equal weapon to boot ...Ur mom & dad were horrified with the patronising way of the officer handling your statement though they tried hard to conceal it.

The aboce scenes occurred on your birthday... wat else could happen next?

went ikea wif hubby, wanting to buy dining set. Happened now got big furnishing sale there..oh yeah, place was undersiege wif people pushing carts, elbowing other people, grabbing items of shelves, dragging young children screaming for toys... When we got to the dept, none of the design were interesting enuf..actually we had set our eyes on particular item but when we saw it again, both of us thought dat it's not dat great, besides, DAT particular piece is still on U.P. no sale!
So, instead of buying something which both of us would regret spending money on besideswhich, the price isn't dat reasonable, we called abah & mak Tag-Team to the rescue... Turned out dat both of them were at the hub shopping themselves.. hehe.. With the AbahMobile(AM), they picked us up and brought us to the nearest makan place in boon keng for fueling-up, needed to tackle the on-slaught of furniture shops on crazy mad sale...
Wif the Tag-Team & the AM on full tank, nothing can stop us!!!!

We took on several shops along paya lebar inds areas, saw a couple design but where the design is pleasing, we felt the size was too big...but where the size was just nice, the design is something which we wouldn't even put in our store room..sigh...The Tag-Team was also on the look-out for a computer table for anone, the ShopVader who was following us, explaining & reassuring his products can be seen rubbing his hands & grinning like mad on the sly perhaps thinking of a big, fat commission... while looking at our 2nd shop, i happened across a nice big sofa dat can double up as a small bed for 1..just rite for our TV area..Hubbi thot so too..after arguing the merits and the exact place to put if we buy it, hubbi flashed out the light-money-sabre and put the deposit down... He was estatic, the ShopVader i meant, after us finally interested to buy something after a long hard battle of the bargain.. Tag-Team decided to sit this one out & be spectator sports... :

After an arduous journey, at the second last shop...somewhere near geylang police ctr, we found THE ONE! Everything about it checks on our list and it screams PERFECT! Mak asked if it's big enuf, well if it is big, we might have to place it on the corridor (no space!) Hubbi said part of our winning strategy is we should never show our interest..we walked on around asking about other sets, bargain-battling as well and finally back to the set of our dreams..We didn't win the war as hubbi set greater sights & as the Tag-Team said we should survey other shops 1st before finally conquering this one... hmm..

The last shop we went, well to cut the story short, even the shop's name puts us off but the Tag-Team said we shouldn't discount the enemy's threat too soon..& so we entered...and just as fast we exited..

Well, our long battle has yield magnificently..we now have decided what & where to buy..now just waiting for the other 1/2 of the Tag-Team to return so as to resume our conquest of the Ultimate Dining Set...

Started as a part time teacher at a nearby centre...work was..challenging will be under-rating it...kids as usual being kids;
obnoxious,
funny,
weird,
adorable,
brutally honest,
rude,
forgetful,
obedient & the lack of it,
endearing,
innocent,
forgiving,
avenging,
well, they are a lively bunch of contradictions....sucking my energy reducing a "healthy" young woman in a heap each single day... & i love them fer it..They made me lose weight! hee hee More so as i travel on foot to & fro...And yesterday, just as a thought dat i've not call mom fer quite a long time while walking home, i twisted my right ankle on the sidewalk kerb. Was God angry and therefore sent me this as a retribution? Who knows & neways, i'm not about to go analyzing God's work.. What I DO know for a fact i'm a klutz..yep, i am...i can be walking fine & dandy and before you can say "oh brother" i'm down clutching my foot/leg/whatever-limb that hurts...The loads of scab marks on me can testify to dat...Went to the polyclinic dis morning & i got 2 days mc.. haha just as i was thinking for getting a perfect clean work record
___________________________________________________________________

******** Special prayers for Uncle Ali & family... May Allah help them*************

All the best Jannah dear...may God bless your engagement & may you find happiness & joy in it all the way thru to marriage...

This is to touch base... yep aai had dutifully informed me my tagboard has yet again AWOL for the 100th time, thanx dearie...

The aunties/uncles/cousins been meaningfully asking if i've gotten "it"/"good news"/"dah ada(in malay meaning gotten it)".. one had remarked that i may have inherited late pregnancy syndrome from me mom... on the outside, i just shook my head and said "i dunno"... on the inside... God only knows... how could one predict such things when one isn't even a qualified MD/ObGyn... Did one see it from my face/palm/tea leaves or watever they might use to tell the future? How could one just dispense such remarks so offhandedly? Hell, i'm mad for this one remark that not only affected me but my mother as well... sheesh...

Since then, i've been stocking up infos on conceptions/pregnancies and the like..bought dozens of tests & cried when the window indicator remained blank... see?? See??!!! what YOU'd made me do? YOU're lucky my hubbi's been keeping a level head while i've been losing mine...

Allah, help me...

Play nice

Truth be told I been sitting here staring at the screen with my mouth hanging partially open wondering what i shd say... how i shd start? hello world i'm back again after an AWOL time?? urgh~ I am NOT in the mood

anyways, there are other pressing things need to be done other than making inane attempts at inane topics to be inanely discussed... i'm pissed.. seriously.. at whom you ask? u genuinely interested to hear my rantings? as if anyone cares.. oh well u can get the $%@#! out for all i know... i'm seriously pissed wif people's attitude now..why can't we be nice? why can't we give up our precious seats for those preggy ladies or old folks or whoever needs them? why are we rushing ahead uncaringly bumping our limbs(read:butts) or our parcels(read:astronomically-sized bags) to unsuspecting fellows? why must there public display of over affection? For goodness' sake, get a room!!!

Was in the public bus recently and a grp of secondary school boys were seated near yours truly.. i just got down from an extremely crowded mrt filled wif inconsiderate, bumping ppl plus the public displayers, generally speaking, was already disgusted by the time i was seated in the bus and was hopin' & prayin' nothing else happens. What else could happen next, you wonder.. These said group of boys(malay/muslims) were fooling around with each other, making jokes and stuff..at first i couldn't care less..but as it grew louder i could not help but notice they were getting exceptionally pointed..exclusively to one of the boys who was of indian descent.. they were racist remarks such as the skin colour, smell and speaking dialects directed at the poor boy (i was thinkin if these are so-called friends, the poor guy shd just lose them... not worth it)
...am not gonna start another blogging hoo-haa by repeating the remarks anyhow here but i do want this chance to reflect.. in the midst of the malay/muslim remarks being spewed off insensitively.. the malay/muslim boys are behaving as such themselves.. Lemme reiterate here that i do not condone the ragging done by the bloggers but are we behaving in a respectable manner ourselves?

ok, i'm getting too angry & emotional to make sense here but i do hope some points can be taken from the above episode: all in all what me trying to say is check before we go blabbering to other people... do not do unto others what u dun want them to bloody do unto you... oh & please, play nice..

welcome home

can't sleep.. why?

feeling excited & thrilled & anxious...

why?

my hubbi's coming home later this morning after 8 long, harrowing, punishing days in reservist.. yeah me menjeng but then dis is my 1st taste of eating/drinking/sleeping/waking without him for full 8 days and i'm told dat dis won't be the last for at least another 5 yrs perhaps.. & May I say dat the taste is not to my liking though hubbi had proudly & patriotically stated dat it's his responsibility to take care of his loved ones and he is doing exactly dat by committing to it.. but he agreed dat it's been long enuf. i pray that HE keeps my hubbi safe..ameen..


dis time round hubbi had to start fasting in camp..da pooorrrr thing but u know wat, in a way i'm thankful for this separation as it really made me realise just how much this stubborn but fierecely-loving guy means to this stubborn & gorgeously enchanting me..heheh Seriously, it makes me count the seconds till he's coming home, makes me miss him like crazy and remembering him in my prayers & waiting antsily for the phone to ring and it would be him on the other line.. In other words, as though falling back in love all over again...

1st iftar @DA

Went to DA last Saturday for iftar. Been positively ages since I stepped back there and met old chums.. aai picked me up and I guess she just loves challenges for she made me her street navigator.. a) There is no love lost between me & maps.  b) Sense of direction..wat da heck is dat?

Through God’s Merciful Graces, we managed to arrive @DA without any major hang-ups although I did manage to make her confused for about 3 times..heh, but fellow readers you would be wrong to think dat I am writing abt me..it was not at least till jiha arrived and laughingly told us she just got knocked down by a van.

Yup! She stood there and told us that it was funny and that it was one of the most embarrassing things to happen in broad daylight among 2000 people milling around looking for food in the nearby bazaar. We were absolutely horrified, and had to drag her amidst her protests to a nearby clinic but it was after 5 and none was open.  She appeared relieved. jiha, being jiha she was more concerned of being embarrassed and of not wanting to be a bother. heh, we were worried if there might be any internal injuries for only after iftar she begun to complain of aches..  Oh, I forgot to mention that the van in question sped off making this case a hit & run..

Everyone was worried and so, not taking any of her ‘nonsenses’, we brought her to a nearby 24Hr clinic. The doc looked a bit peeved to see all 3 of us in his room together wif jiha, but hey the person to be concerened wif was jiha & not him.. hehe.. he asked for the whole details and pressed on her arms and her ribs to chk if there might be a fracture but he still told her to get some xray done as a precaution. The doc said no matter how small the injuries are, it is imperative to record details of the driver or the very least the license plate.. all we know dat it was a blue van.. poor jiha she looked very scared when she heard dat her aches could be serious. We immediately decided to get her to a&e on the very same nite & dat she shd inform her parents. She sounded shaky so we thot it was better dat I talked to her mum before her mum unnecessarily panicked & called the whole bandwagon.

@ the a&e it was another 2 hours wait..seemed like the whole eastern part of spore was having a gathering.. she went in wif kak yati while me (wif the classified section- looking for job) & aai, yakked our heads off  outside. After the xray had been done she was told she was clear & besides initial shock, it was only her muscles suffering the stretch..They made a police report there too & jiha got her wish, cute police officers taking down her statement.. hehe..

At first we half-seriously thinking of going mustafa & sahur outside but i think we have had enuf excitement for one day and much needed the rest, so I finally got home at abt half past midnite courtesy of aai driving but at least wif a heart not so heavy knowing jiha is not in any danger..

Point of View

"Men are comic", she said, smiling dreamily. Not knowing whether this indicated praise or blame, I answered noncommittantly: "Quite true."

"Really, my husband's a regular Othello. Sometimes I'm sorry I married him."

I looked helplessly at her. "until you explain--" I began.

"Oh, I forgot that you haven't heard. About three weeks ago, I was walking home with my husband through the square. I had a large black hat on, which suits me awfully well, and my cheeks were quite pink from walking. As we passed under a streetlight, a pale , dark-haired fellow standing nearby glanced at me and suddenly took my husband by his sleeve.

"Would you oblige me with a light," he says. Alexander pulled his arm away, stooped down and quicker than lightning, banged him on the head with a brick. He fell like a log. Awful!"

"Why, what on earth made your husband get jealous all of a sudden?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I told you men are very comic."

Bidding her farewell, I went out, and at the corner came across her husband.

"Hello, old chap," I said. "They tell me you've been breaking people's heads."

He burst out laughing. "So you've talking to my wife. It was jolly lucky that brick came to pat into my hand. Otherwise, just think: I had about fifteen hundred rubles in my pocket, and my wife was wearing her diamond earrings."

"Do you think he wanted to rob you?"

"A man accosts you in a deserted spot, asks for a light, and gets hold of your arm. What more do you want?"

Perplexed, I left him and walked on.

"There's no catching you today," I heard a voice say from behind.

I looked around and saw a friend I hadn't set eyes upon for three weeks.

"Lord!" I exclaimed. "What on earth has happened to you?"

He smiled faintly and asked in turn: "Do you know whether any lunatics have been at large lately? I was attacked by one three weeks ago. I left the hospital only today."

With sudden interest, I asked: "Three weeks ago? Were you sitting in the square?"

"Yes, I was. The most absurd thing. I was sitting in the square, dying for a smoke. No matches! After ten minutes or so, a gentleman passed with some old hag. He was smoking. I go up to him, touch him on the sleeve and ask in my most polite manner: "Can you oblige me with a light?" And what do you think? The mad man stoops down, picks something up, and the next moment I am lying on the ground with a broken head, unconscious. You probably read about it in the newspapers."

I looked at him and asked earnestly: "Do you really believe you met up with a lunatic?"

"I am sure of it."

Anyhow, afterwards I was eagerly digging in old back numbers of the local paper. At last I found what I was looking for: A short note in the accident column.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DRINK

Yesterday morning, the keepers of the square found on a bench ayoung man whose parents show him to be of good family. He had evidently fallen to the ground while in a state of extreme intoxication, and had broken his head on a nearby brick. The distress of the prodigal's parents is indescribable.

"Point of view" by A. Averchenko in Social Work Processes, 3rd ed., Compton & Galaway, Pg: 302 - 303, The Dorsey Press, Homewood, Illinois, 1984.