Thursday, November 25, 2004

Crowd control

I arrived home last night to be greeted by Daisy, Uncle Yiu and Jacky who were gathered in front of Daisy's store. I'm sure Uncle Yiu has seen me several times since I returned from Vietnam (in August) but he must have forgotten and asked me about my trip to Thailand.

'Yuetlam' I corrected him. 'Oh yes, Yuetlam' Uncle You said. 'Before, not so good. Now getting better'. I guess Uncle Yiu should know. He used to work on a ship and visited there many times while the war was still on.

As I was talking to Uncle Yiu I had stepped off the footpath and into the gutter so we were at a more comfortable height for conversation. I was in the gutter for a few seconds before Jacky grabbed my arm and yanked me back on the footpath.

Jacky yelled something at me and Daisy explained that the was trying to keep me safe from the passing cars. He then took it on himself to give the same treatment to the next three people that passed by, grabbing them by the arm and pulling them fast onto the footpath.

All three of them were elderly citizens who feared they were getting pulled into the nearby alley and mugged. As soon as Jacky released each of them they scuttled off towards Shanghai St with Daisy calling out 'm'ho ee si' (no offense) behind them. She had to shout loud to be heard over Jacky yelling that they should be more careful of walking on the road.

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