kiddies in tow

was the chaperone of 5 kids roaming wild in the shopping centre last friday. 5 eternally hungry kids. never realised that kids are such black bottomless pit of hunger. all i did for the whole day was feed them, feed them, feed them, and guess what......feed them.

given a choice between adults and kids, i always pick hanging out with kids. their innocence, their sincerity, their trueness, it's simply rejuvenating. there we were, 5 little kids and one big one, hanging out for what is the first time, and could be the last time. a little melancholy, a little sad but still, fun.

the funny thing when you are with a bunch of goons, is that other goon-wannabes reach out beyond their normal force-shield to try to touch that magic, that innocence, that looney-ness that we all need a little of in our lives.

whilst waiting in line for sushi zanmai (i don't know why there's always a queue there cos the food sucks), the boys decided to hum to the tune of wong fei hoong, at the top of their lungs none the less. it was embarassing, no doubt, but perhaps not as embarrasing as when they interspaced that with calling each other pondan. also not the place to be explaining to one of the young ones what that word mean exactly, infront of many eyes staring and even more ears perking up i'm sure. but my skills in thickening my skin by several centimetres within a very short time frame has been sharpened over all the time i've spent with these little mischievious elves. after a while, the lady next to us spoke up. i was braced for all kinds of weird remarks but all she asked was whether they have seen a wong fei hoong movie recently. i almost collapsed with relief at her seemingly innocent comment. i wouldn't know, i said. how does one get to see any wong fei hoong movies nowadays anyway? i thought it was almost extinct. ip man is not the same.

then when us goons walked the mall, hand in hand, horizontally blocking the paths for all other shoppers, a man walking quietly behind with his partner took one look at our little boy, who was wearing the famous liverpool jersey, and remarked, liverpool, no wonder they lost. i smirked in return, you must be a man u fan. honest to goodness, i'm neither a fan of one or the other of the coma-inducing sport. the left right left right action is more hypnotic than my sleep-deprived brain can bear but when you hear one jeer the other, you just can't help but get involve in the childish (i'm going to be trampled to death by millions of guys) spat.

another day i was holding a plastic box full of dwarf hamsters roaming the shopping mall, don't ask me why, pretty accessories i will say. for some reason, many eyes were staring. some so obvious that they were edging their friends in the ribs with a rather loud 'look!'. a man walked up with his son, asking me all sorts of questions related to the pets. he was at once almost afraid to ask but also curious. i nearly wanted to take his phone no. down just so that i can have another 'victim' to give my overpopulating baby hamsters to.

normally i wouldn't hear any peep, much less comments from any sane controlled adult, no matter how begging for remarks the situation may be. you can be running around in your undies but no one blinks an eye, but with kiddies in tow, it suddenly closes the distance for strangers. it makes it alright to reach out and talk to a stranger, to a person that you did not know exist a few minutes ago. kiddies seem to have that effect. of course, it helped that there was no adult in sight. me? i'm no adult.

a strange lesson in human relationship indeed.