Bald Adventures Ep 1

Honestly, this is one occasion where my eye condition comes in handy. I strongly believe that becasue I have macula degeneration, I probably miss 50% of the blatant stares and furtive looks that I have been getting in the days following Hair for Hope.

Ares & Reyes

Yesterday morning, he looked at me and started crying. I decided it wasn't that he couldn't recognise me in my new "hairdo", but that he wasn't feeling too well.

Later, as I carried him, I'd look down once in a while, only to see that he was looking at me with that serious, intense look. Mum reckons he was trying to figure out if I am Gou Gou. It's like I look familiar, sound familiar but.......

When Ares came in the evening, he stood at the front door and shouted gretings, and then prompted by his father, came over to ask me what had happened to my hair, laughing all the while.

At the Pool

I walked past the lifeguards, cooling off in the shade, in my pink Speedo with my cap and goggles in my hand. Smiling, one of the lifeguards stopped me, "Nice hairstyle!" He remarked.

My rejoinder? "There is no hairstyle.... because there is no hair!" :D The lifeguards laughed and we spent another couple of minutes talking about Hair for Hope and the Children's Cancer Foundation.

I know there are those who think that the whole shaving thing is just a publicity stunt. In a way they are right. People will stare, and then they will talk about Hair for Hope (HfH) and the Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF), or the braver ones will stop me to talk about them. Either way, it raises awareness of the CCF, and that is ok in my books.

Laps later....

I made a soft grunt of annoyance as I stepped into the shower. I'd forgotten the brush!

The short stubbe has made it difficult for me to wash my scalp properly, and I was supposed to get a brush with soft bristles to use when shampooing. Of course, I'd completely forgotten about it on the way to the pool.

In the act of moisturising my face, I suddenly remembered that I still had the Birthday discount with Body Shop. Shopping!

And on the top of my list... a soft-bristled brush.

Gambling, loan sharks and the CID at McD's

I actually stopped in my tracks, with a regular iced green tea in my hands. You see, she'd not been there when I placed my Sheng Siong purchases on the table. Yet here she was, barely 5 minutes later, sitting at the next table in her cotton printed shapeless shift that many women her age (61 yrs) were fond of wearing, a mobile phone to her ear, looking like she's been there for some time.

She looked up as I approached. I smiled and sat down. Muffled dregs of what sounded like one side of a conversation in Hokkien filtered through my earphone-stuffed ears during lull moments in Hugh Fraser's narration of Agatha Christie.

Then I heard what sounded like a loud sigh and the clatter of plastic on plastic. I looked to my left. She was looking at me. Her mouth was moving. She was gesturing. I unplugged my ears just in time to catch Aunty say, in Hokkien,that we should sometimes cut others some slack.

I kept silent and looked enquiringly at Aunty. She told me abut her mobile phone conversation with her friend, an inveterate gambler. How she'd helped her friend get a loan to pay off loan sharks. She told me about her cousin who is almost 20 years her junior, and how she'd brought him up because he could not get on with his parents. I watched her talk about him with fondness and pride, telling me how much he looked like an actor, how well he is doing in the CID, and how he looks out for her. She talked about her husband, her daughter, her disappointment with her son-in-law. She asked about my life, my work.

All too soon, it was 10.30am and it was time for me to go. We said our goodbyes and I walked out of the McD's at Jalan Besar, making my way towards Kim Hoe Centre.