After school ended and the students were dismissed, I had to accompany a student of mine for awhile before his parents would arrive to pick him up. Managed to clear some work during that time and once the kid was off, I was off and out of the school grounds too. Made my way to Hougang Mall as I needed to get a 2 GB thumb drive. The old 1 GB Imation flash drive that I have just doesn't cut it anymore, what with all the pictures I need to take for creating worksystems and all that. Got a Toshiba 2 GB thumb drive as soon as I reached there. More because that was the only brand they carried with 2 GB worth of memory than a matter of choice. That however, isn't the real tale that I wanted to share with you.
I was walking out of the mall when I saw a huge crowd gather around the KFC outlet that was there. Now at first I thought there was some promotional event happening, like KFC giving away free Zingers or something. But upon closer inspection (not that I could get any closer than 3 m away) it seems like something a lot more sinister than freebie giveaways happening. And so I took a position someways away from the main focal point of the crowd's attention and dug up my camera.
And as I panned left, it struck me that the situation was a lot more dire than I thought.
An ambulance and a fire truck (a bit hard to spot that)
A few minutes after I took that picture, Civil Defence Officers came running from the glistening red gargantuan mobile towards the outlet, whilst some were rushing back towards the two emergency vehicles. For a long period it seemed as though they were playing some incoherent relay game with an invisible baton. And after a longer few moments came a cry from within the crowd saying "Alright. Everything's ok. Everything is fixed." And a Civil Defence Officer, a Major from what I make of his rank, stepped out and calmly proceeded towards one of the emergency vehicles parked there. I tried to grab a picture of him but there were too many bystanders who were more standing in front of me than by. The best picture I got was when the last batch of the overall wearing relay runners returning to their vehicle.
This was then followed by a stretcher that came out with a young Chinese boy on it. The stretcher was placed in a seated position and the boy had his hands over his face but there were no blood or any wounds that I could clearly see. I couldn't snap a good picture of that too. Had too many 'concerned' on-lookers looking on. Managed to get the back view of whom I assumed was the mother of the child as they making their way towards the berthed ambulance. And of the vehicles exiting the area.
And when the crowd cleared (which took a good 15 minutes or so) I noticed that the side entrance to the fast food outlet (where the people were gathering upon) was blocked.....well sort of.
I doubt that piece of ribbon could prevent anyone from entering through that door if they truly wanted to. Anyway, whatever it was, the boy must've met some kind of accident in that entrance. I hope he's ok. It would suck to spend your New Year in a hospital because Fate decided to play dice. My prayers go out to him in the hopes that whatever happened to him that it wouldn't be too serious.
I'd like to wish that he'll have
HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR
regardless. Same goes for all my Chinese friends out there. Kind of makes you feel fortunate that you're still alive and not debilitated, chronically or by some moment of discord. Cherish it, I'm sure that boy will when he's better, we should all too.
On a side note...................
I just can't seem to get my cat out of his 'hotel room'. Heh.......cats and their weird obsession with cramped spaces.
Azarian Realms Presents Update:
According To Az
RPG Project: Valion
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