New friends!!

I’ve had interesting/amusing encounters with kids this holidays.

The first happened at J8, while I was crossing the overhead bridge to the bus stop, walking down the steps. There was a little boy who looked around 6 years old ahead of me on the steps, and being one and a half times taller than him, it was natural for me to have overtaken him with my normal walking pace. He saw me, and decided to RACE me down the remaining steps.

He was so cute, he excitedly bounced down the steps (while I maintained my step-by-step pace), and at the bottom of the overhead bridge he proudly proclaimed, “I win you leh! (x 2)”

HAHA. So I nodded and replied, “Yeah, you win me!!” and smiled, hoping he’d feel good about it.

Turns out he not only felt good, he was in such a good mood that day that he decided to try to take my phone from my hands when I took it out to check the time. (“iPhone ah! Got game anot??”) (Tried explaining to him later that mine was not the real one – a ‘fake’ iPhone) Unfortunately I’d deleted most games from my phone during the A’s period to remove distractions so no games
:( Also tried to tell him that but he still found one – the ‘Moron Test: Section 1’ game, thanks to the yellow cartoon duck with the Santa Claus hat, which stood out from the rest of the logos like the Dictionary.com-ish kind.

Anyhow, I felt like his new friend, and he talked to me as though I knew him for a long time. The attempts to play the games continued until his Grand aunt who was walking slowly at the back caught up with him and told him gently to not take my phone. Then my bus came and I had to say goodbye to my little new friend.

Second experience – it was quite early in the morning and the morning didn’t get off to a very good start. I was coming home from someplace else and alighted from the bus, walking towards the overhead bridge to get home when out of nowhere a little boy ran up from behind and grabbed my hand.

I think I immediately went O.O. His mum came running along and tried to coax him to hold her hand instead, but he didn’t let go of mine and so we walked up the stairs together and all the way to the other side, when he finally let go of my hand upon his mum’s instructions. That was goodbye to new friend no. 2.

These two encounters happened within the same week, haha I felt like a kid magnet for a while. Anyway, these 2 experiences really brought a smile to my face, and lately it’s getting to me how parents instantly feel uplifted coming home to their smiling kids after a day’s work. Both kids were so adorable (Boy 1 friendly & forthcoming, Boy 2 shy) and innocently happy. It’ll be nice if everyone has a chance to share simple joys like this and have a taste of innocence again, from time to time. (:

This new year, I hope for everyone to be healthy 健康快乐 and safe 四季平安, and as the year rolls by, be blessed with an abundance of joy, just like the 2 kids I met! 新年快乐!