its funny how something as insignificant like giving out newspapers can bring such immense enlightenment on such an ordinary soul as i.

every morning, i stand witness to the fact that singapore produces citizens that rank number one in terms of walking speed. its amusing, that the straits times even bothered to do a cover on it, but when the article linked walking speed arbitrarily to speed of development and technological advancement blah blah i started to switch off and kind of droned off for the rest of the article.

i mean, whats the causal link anyway? at least i dont see any.
some government propaganda to satisfy our inner desires and substantiate our daily behaviour. its rather absurd, really.

its also rather interesting to see all kinds of people.
as boring as office workers seem; those 9-5 white collar workforce slaves,
there seem to be a generous variety of sorts;
and since the location where i give out places is somewhat south,
some plants and blue collar work places are located there as well.

so every morning i have my fair share of ol eye candy and manly technicians/construction hunks.


*laughs*
thats such a sexist statement.

students hurrying to school; office workers running late for work, part-time half-retired office aunties and uncles, grumpy ns men grudgingly trudging to serve the nation,

all types and all kinds.



most certainly there are a variety of responses.
the cold smile and slight shake of the head; the i-dont-even-see-you-at-all face,
the unexpected slow generous spread of a smile; the urgent and quick nod of approval followed by hurried grabbing of the paper; the 'i-havent-even-reached-you-but-my hand-is-already-super-outstretched-demanding-the-paper'; the strong snatch and run; the loose grip that results in the paper dropping on the floor, and, usually, me, bending up to pick it; the 'good morning' and cheery 'thank you';
the queue-cutters; the 'is this the english paper'; the glutton 'can i have 5 copies'

the kind of people that amuse/infuriate me the most are those who dont see to know what they want.
i mean, you stand there giving out the papers, and its pretty obvious that when you walk out of the exit and if you want the paper you'd walk towards me, right? so i have a line of say, 4-5 people walking in my direction.

then in front of this line,
this guy walks steadily towards me.
i smile and extend my right arm and hand, which is gripping a newspaper
the hovers, he falters, almost walks past me

hello, so do you want the paper?

i drop my hand, about to give it to someone else,
THEN he sticks his hand out, half-heartedly, as if suddenly remembering that he wants the paper.


.........

i mean, you'd think someone would make it obvious if they wanted something, like maybe making eye contact or speaking or giving some action or sign of confirmation, but no, there are people are simply cant make up their mind.




i wouldnt say this is a fulfilling job,
but on days that i dont survive on 0 or 1/2 hour sleep cycles,
seeing his bright smile and cheery 'good morning' or watching her extend both hands and gratefully say 'thank you' isn't too bad.