After 30 years...

Actually not 30 years. Sebenarnya aku malas nak kira. Tapi takpe, aku kira sekarang

5-6 years?

Maybe. Maybe it has been 5-6 years since I last went to this place. I felt so like a school kid again because I usually went there right after school, in my school uniform, selekeh and all, with the biasiswa money I took from BSN nearby.

I so missed my old self. I miss how I used to be.

And I miss my friends.

I went inside Soon Seng Plaza because I needed to go to the toilet. I was so overwhelmed by the samenessessity, a word which here means the fact that nothing much has changed or nothing at all changed since the last time you went to a place or saw something including its smell and the way it makes you feel inside. You can tell I made that word up.

I felt like 15 again. Well I actually felt like 14, 15, 16 and 17 again at the same time.

the same bench

the same sports shop with the same-looking basketballs that I used to admire and wished to buy like crazy because I love basketball like crazy that I drank a litre of milk almost everyday and jumped rope 1000 times almost everyday in the hopes of becoming taller because I wanted to become an All-Star NBA player and I watched NBA All Stars every Saturday & Sunday morning and would get emotional if I missed it and I love Houston Rockets so much that I cried and dubbed my eraser Tyronn Lue. That is when I was 16. Or 14 I can't remember.

and this same store with the same goods

I wonder how long have they been sitting there

the same this

the same SOJO

selling the same SOJO things

the same Guardian with the same McDonald's smell from the McDonald's next to it

the same toilet with the same sound of water gushing from the broken pipe in the same stall

Over the years, I have grown fond of this bridge. Maybe I should call it "My Favourite Bridge (MFB)"

Now let us tread lightly on the stairs to go to the other side.

it's so clean and beggar-free

It's gonna be too long so I'll continue in my next post like anybody cares.