1339. Singapore stories. The girl with a tattooed "sleeve"

Saturday Feb 21, 2014  9.20am

I took the subway since my car is being borrowed by a young man whose friend is getting married. It is refreshing and good exercise to walk in the bright sunshine morning, taking bus and train to my office.
On the train, I saw a "red head" slim girl in bright green dress, fair complexion, eye lashes long, her reddish brown hair shining in the sunlight. Finger nails with the additional false patterned nails, except her forefinger. Blue shoulder bag on right shoulder and left shoulder has a black bag. Pink slippers. Toes painted green. I noticed Digit 4 on both legs were clubbed. From the right side, I thought she wore an unusual sleeved blouse with a fierce-looking skull and grinning teeth. It was a tattoo on her right upper arm. The left arm was bare. A tattoo appeared from the left cleavage, peeping from the neck line of her dress. 2 red ear pieces attached to her smartphone as she furiously scrolled the screen. Age around late 20s. Unlikelys to be going downtown to work. I alighted at Toa Payoh station and she was still scrolling.

On alighting from the bus 238 opposite the Hindu temple, I met one industrial park tenant who sells plumbing and pipes."What's happened to the old man book-binder?" This man wanted to retire and had asked me for $40,000 to take over. New HDB rulings say that the new tenant will have to return the shop and not assign. So we thought he would have no takers. He had an offer of $25,000 from the air-cond neighbour.
"Well, he does not open on Saturday. In fact he will close in July."
"How much did he sell his shop?" I asked.
"$45,000," he said. "Two lady realtors came and got him to close the deal."
The 75-year-old man got what he wanted and $5,000 more. He did not need to work and his children had asked him to stop work. He was working half-day anyway and had some orders from the government to bind books for funeral services of important people. There was no more apprentices like him to learn the trade and so all skills are gone. At least he has got $45,000 to smell the roses. Realtors who walk the neighbourhood can be quite successful in closing deals too.