after the game of billiards i had on fri nite, my frens and i walked from marina square to the bus stop in front of S11 which is located the (former?) national library.

a middle aged man caught my attention. he was carrying a big red plastic bag on his right hand and with his left hand, he was grabbing a pork/chicken chop from a plate and devouring it rather quickly. beside him, a cleaner was clearing the piles of plates on the table and was looking at him rather wierdly.

i was thinking: aiyah, no need to eat so fast lah, just tell the cleaner not to clear the plate, can liao.

then it struck me.

the man was not part of the group of customers who were previously occupying the table. he's a "vulture", he must have swooped in after the group had left and targeted the leftovers. after he managed to get the piece of meat inside his mouth, his fingers dipped into a bowl of seafood's soul and fished out a prawn. wow, i think his eyes sorta lighted up. someone did not finished his/her packet of "ribina" (err..not too sure of the spelling) and he emptied the content and then dumped the packet on the floor.

i was rather shocked...and of course, a bit disgusted.

he was dressed in office wear, with shirt, pant and proper shoes....but the shirt and pant were rather dirty and he was not wearing the shoes properly, the heels were stepping on the shoes if you understand what i mean.

is it the recession? the economy? or did he picked up the clothes from somewhere?

for a moment, i was thinking of approaching him and buying him a meal...but only for a moment.

this incident reminded me of a rather similar scene i saw at lido's rubbish collection centre when i was working at delifrance. i was bringing the store's rubbish to the centre and i saw 2 foreign workers eating pineapple inside the centre. btw, the place was damp, smelly and one could see huge rats with their long tails scurrying away when they sensed you. the sight of them eating the pineapple was bad enough but when one of them reached into a rubbish bag and pulled out another piece of pineapple just turned me off...

perhaps i had too big of a reaction but you had to admit it's a bit hard to swallow...

do enjoy the good but imperfect life you have.