flu travels

i had the flu today, and hadn't turned up for work. felt so bloody tired that i fell into a deep deep sleep during the afternoon - it was with great effort that i had managed to drag myself out of bed and get myself to the doctor's.

well on the way there i saw, through the rusting zinc barricades, a half knocked-down (or half-built) house. it's like one of those houses you see in war-torn countries, only this one stands beside a perfectly lived-in and undamaged one in the "upper crust" part of the island. i noticed there were some polo shirts gently swaying in the late afternoon breeze from a makeshift clothesline on the second storey of the house. i gathered that might be the place where the inhabitants slept and rested at - after a long day's work or even in-between periods of hard labour, perhaps?

there was no wall behind the clothesline when there would usually be a wall - i could see the clear sky behind it. nobody was in sight, neither. did they really live where they worked at? it's quite nice to live where you build. though... it's kinda sad that whatever you live at and build will never be yours.


that glimpse and thought was enough to send me further into my contemplations, while i was in the bus hanging on for dear life with the bus driver's F1 antics.

..well, actually the bus was rather empty and i was seated - i just felt like saying that so you would think i am one of those moody-thoughtful types. :P

anyways. so i wondered: is it possible that some people will always live in such "war-torn" conditions no matter where they go? i mean, if i may make the assumption that those clothes belong to immigrants who come to "where the fish is plenty and the sky is always blue" to work - is it possible that those people had moved from hunger to having "having a roof over their heads, sort of"?

assuming that they ARE living in that particular spot, of course.

even if they weren't. where do they put up at? from a rambling country to a walled-up (ish) cubicle. which did they prefer, walled up completely or just walled-up (ish)? hoe long did they have to stay in those kind of uh, homes? does it matter to them anymore?

because, goodness knows that they are going through what our forefathers are going through - only difference being our island being "new land" back then and we had the chance to take it. right now... well, right now singapore's taken.

what gives?


and those were my thoughts until i suddenly realised that i was at my stop.