taxi drivers - you gotta love em' Easter Saturday was unlike any other this year.
It was the first time i didn't attend Vigil mass with the parents and the sis.
It was the first time ( in a long while) that i didn't attend it at SMOTA.
It was the first time i spent the entire afternoon in school, churning out information on the gene sequence of enzymes that yield good blast alignment hits at the aerogenome database, discussing the reactions it catalyses, the quality of the orthologs it yielded and in depth analysis of the 'interesting' relationships we inferred about the taxonomical lineages of the organisms we found on neighBORING branches of its phylogenetic tree.

So i was supposed to meet the rest of the scooby gang at 7 at coronation. Had to be home by 6 to bathe and change and therefore supposed to leave school by 5. Supposed - being the keyword to my previous statement, i ended up leaving school at 540 even after rushing so hard for the report i felt like i was about to throw up after i was done. Anyway it meant that i had to cab home and so i prayed that a cab may pass by and one did!

Got into the cab and the uncle was massively waving his hands in huge circular motions in order to drive the cigarette smoke outta the open window. He turned the air conditioner on and only then could i stop turning blue from holding my breath and resume normal breathing functions that did not threaten to charcoal my lungs.

Then uncle began asking why so many students were waving for cabs in NUS when there was a long line of cabs at NUH. He said that he drove off thinking there were no customers, lit his cigarette and barely had 2 puffs before he saw me. "Everytime i tot no people one, can smoke then blow 2 time then aiyah got customer then have to throw so waste one arh!" My instantaneous reply:" Uncle like that good lah then you wun smoke too much, smoking bad for health plus pick customer can earm money mah!" Uncle chuckled and said " wah uncle first time got customer so care about my healthy or not leh" It was at that moment, where our cab-ride friendship blossomed!! and for the rest of the journey, Uncle shared with me about his son graduating from NTU, about my future about His future, about CPF, about Gah-ment (government), about condos and private property, about the ford factory and speaking french... and i recalled my soci lecturer saying that the best sociologists are taxi drivers heh! Actually our cab-ride bonding involved mainly Uncle telling me his stance about you-know important issues and me just agreeing with equal gusto. i think uncle was happy he found someone who would just listen and agree with him and i was just happy i could just sit and listening without having to be the one to talk. Soon we reached Dairy Farm Estate and we had to wait while my sis brought money down to pay for the cab fare, meanwhile Uncle continued about how my condo was "not bad, spacey not cram like the new one hor if at night neber pull the curtain arh, WHA can see everything your neighbour doing arh! terible one that one!!" then the lift went up to that 4th floor and i said " ok coming down already my sister" to which uncle said" wha 4 floor goot! not high not low! good arh!" then he began counting down and kinda yelled happy new year! when the lift reached the basement. (Yes HE DID!)
My sis was throughly amused when the uncle wound down the window to say bye and remarked that we both looked the same. We said bye and as i walked off, i had an urge to turn around and saw him lighting up a new cigarette! " UNCLE!!!! why you...!?!?" and Uncle's reply to the exasperated look on my face was priceless " Aiya i Need CUSTOMER!"  ¶ 12:04 PM