the strange old man.

i have never met such a strange old man before.

where: toa payoh KFC fast food outlet.
who: victoria, kiki, bong, rox, cai ling, me.
when: today, after prelims.

we decided to have lunch at KFC. all 6 of us. yes, i admit, there were some points in time when we were doing silly things. like roxanne strangling bong. ha. that was funny.

but i don't think we were as bad to the extent that we would offend any members of the public.

yet, vicki and cai ling noticed this strange old man taking a video of people on his phone in the restaurant--particularly girls, like the two sitting next to us. apparently, he was taking a video of us too. we thought he and a woman he was with, who we assumed to be his wife, were offended by us in some way--maybe we were annoying them? so, cai ling decided to apologise to them, just in case we were. i accompanied her.

cai ling: sorry, did we offend you in any way?

the man, to our great surprise, began talking and muttering to himself over and over again.

"complain...i'm going to complain....so noisy...complain...."

cai ling: er, sorry sir...?
man: yes?
cai ling: sorry, did we offend you?
man: no. *looks indignant*
cai ling and me: eh?
cai ling: okay, if we offended you, we're really sorry.
me: yeah, sorry...
man: it's alright. just don't be so loud next time.
cai ling and me: yeah, okay. we're really sorry. sorry....
man: it's alright.

i walked away thinking, "what a forgiving man."

then, cai ling overheard him mumbling to himself again, "you think say sorry got any use? no use no use....must complain....going to complain....sorry no use..."

cai ling got so worried that we'll get into trouble. but we deduced that even if we did, we're safe.

firstly, we did NOT do anything wrong. yes, we were telling jokes and laughing in KFC. BUT the other people in the restaurant were just as noisy as us. i am very sure that we were not making that much noise. in fact, whenever someone was going to tell a joke, we would huddle together so no one else would hear. we kept our volumes at an appropriate level.

secondly, the man does not have the right to take a video of people of the public without their permission, unless they are committing a crime. he was not only taking a video of us, but also the 2 school girls next to us. they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary either. he 'filmed' them as they got up and left, as well as when they were sitting down, eating and chatting quietly to themselves. he apparently 'filmed' us when we got up to leave as well. what's so offensive about getting up and leaving the restaurant?

thirdly, we APOLOGISED, in front of many witnesses, who turned to see what was happening. and HE SAID IT WAS ALRIGHT. he clearly showed he had forgiven us.

we might argue that maybe he had thought victoria was taking a video of him when she was actually taking a video of bong and rox. but clearly she was taking a video of them. why would she want to take a video of an innocent member of the public and not her friends who were having an exciting fight over a straw?

yes, thanks to this video of the exciting straw duel, we DO have evidence that he was taking a video of the 2 girls next to us for no good reason--in the background, we could see him obviously pointing his phone's camera to the girls next to us.

and why did he take the video of the girls next to us?

i don't think either party committed any crimes or serious offences to deserve to be filmed, unless sitting, eating and talking is a crime. then shouldn't he take videos of everyone in the restaurant? they were doing that too. why only young school girls?

(we have also formulated another reason for this strange behaviour, but it is too sensitive an issue to blog about.)

rox had an encounter with the woman too. rox backed away from the table to avoid some water or something. she DIDN'T make contact with the woman, but backed towards her. so she apologised gracoiusly for giving the woman a shock. the woman said nothing, but stared at her fiercely and with a somewhat murderous glare. then, she looked blankly into space, as she had been doing before.

we noticed that the man and the woman had said nothing to each other from the moment they came into the restaurant. if i remember correctly, they didn't eat anything either. all the woman did was come in, sit down and stare into space. all the man did, was come in, sit down and take videos of people.

and they had such strange blank looks in their eyes all the time....