In Continuum.

Brown Paper People

Before this entry officially starts,i'd like the extend my appreciation to the existence of second-hand bookstores.You know the ways out of the ways of big mega-sized bookstores like Borders and Kino?There are only a few left in Singapore,as pathetic as the number of A&Ws out there(I heard there is only ONE left in Singapore,in the airport).

I was supposed to have the audition for the gig thing at White Tangerine today.But due to my recent loss of memory and the newly acquired ability to be confused,i got the date mixed up with next Saturday.So at Ahmad's place where we practised and jammed,i suddenly realised that i actually got the audition date wrong.That was stupid,very very stupid of me.But then again,even if it WAS today,we wouldnt have been able to make it since the stage is outdoors,and it was raining elephants and toads out there at that time.I called up Edmund,the manager of the cafe,and he told me that they usually cancel gigs on rainy days,which was initially a confusing statement,but i guess it made sense once we went to check out the cafe itself.

Anyway,so we treated today's jamming as a practise,and decided on the songs to do for the audition next week.In the meanwhile,we hung around Heartland Mall and had dinner at Pizza Hut next to a bunch of school kids still smelling like sweat and KLIM.I stumbled upon one of those buy/rent second-hand bookshops,right next to Popular.You know one of those really crowded bookshops,with shelves higher than your head and filled with books from the bottom up?It was hard to look for books initially.I mean,with the mountain of books aside,i had no idea how the books were categorized.

I tried my luck with "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham,but the fact that the books were classified according to the authors' first names(Who the hell does that?)made it a hell of a task to start looking.

I went to the counter,and for some strange reason the moment i approached the ladies at the counter i knew that they werent going to help in finding the book for me.You know how first impressions are so important at times,how they get stuck to you even if that person tries however hard to change it.Usually,these impressions,the first ones,are based on very trivial and minor things that others might not consider crucial at all.I mean,different people have different ways of drawing conclusions,right?And to me,as i stood in front of the counter i KNEW that the two girls sitting before me werent going to help,that they lacked the knowledge of the books in the store they were actually taking care of.

They were having their dinner then,apparently.You know those brown paper they use to wrap up food at hawker centers?I forgot the name of those,i recall a technical name for those.But anyway,their dinners were sitting upon those papers,and for some strange reason i drew to my conclusion that these two girls werent cultured enough to know a single information about the books in the store,let alone Michael Cunningham.

The two girls were a little stunned when i asked them about him.One of them handed me a piece of paper,and with food still in her mouth she asked me to write the name of the author down.She sounded like "Rote da name of da otor don on da papor...",or something along that line of blurry stupidity.Then you start to wonder,whatever happened to the netiquettes?

They actually had to call somebody from the phone and ask him or her if the book actually exists in the store.That person,whoever he or she was,didnt even have to think about it.He or she KNEW that they didnt have the book,and she was probably not within ten kilometres from Heartland Mall.The bookshop was what,three by five?And you girls couple even get a grip about the books you were selling.You cant,you might argue.But at least swallow your food before you even start attending to me,please.I dont need to see your dinner,and im sure you wouldnt want to see mine hurling towards your face.

Okay,i know a hell lot of people eat from those brown papers.I know that it is a common thing,and that it is unfair to draw such conclusions from a trivial thing such as the paper you have your dinner on.But that was then,right at that very moment,the impression that i had of these girls,the prediction if they were going to be able to help me or not.It's a strange thing,and i know i am guilty of judging people this way.But at that moment,i didnt think too much about it.I just did,and i was right about it,strangely.