The most interesting encounter I had with a stranger was today, with an ice-cream vendor on his ice-cream motorbike-stand along Orchard road. It was nearly 8pm and no one else was queuing up, so I decided to get it for dinner (no, getting a trainer hasn't made me eat healthy yet). By default I'll get chocolate chip biscuit (which is a slab of ice-cream between 2 thin waffles). It's just like ice-cream back when I was young, when there's nothing fancy like rum & raisin, tiramisu or cookies & creme. Back then, no one would ever tilt ice-cream upside down to prove to me its consistency before handing it over either.

Anyway, the ice-cream vendor held my ice-cream for me while I pocketed my change, and he started telling me he was watching TV. I looked puzzled, so he pulled a mobile TV from under his ice-cream stand for me to see. The TV was the size of a small transistor radio, and I've never actually seen something that size before. So there we were peering intently into the tiny fuzzy TV screen opposite Hereen, and he commented that the reception there was among the worst along Orchard Road. I asked which channel it was and the ice-cream vendor replied it's Channel U. Since I don't watch TV, I haven't the faintest idea what to expect from this channel.

I just know it's a nice respite to stand in a busy street with ice-cream and TV, while the whole world passed us by.