it was a mad rush of a day...

but everything seemed to drop to a snail's pace as i was walking from cecil court to chinatown mrt.

i took the usual route but left the office slightly earlier today.

there was fella riding a bicycle in my direction. as the figure got bigger, i realized he was an old man...and there was just something odd about the way he was riding the thing. i was concentrating so hard on him that my surroundings seemed to just fade away. as he passed me, i realized...

the guy was only pedaling with one foot.

this doesn't mean he had only one foot. he had both feet, but his right was hanging limply over the right pedal.

the moving image of the old man kept playing in my head over as i continued my walk towards the mrt station.

then it dawned on me that this guy sat at the same spot every morning - right after the traffic light at south bridge road - amidst the other old geezers peddling their wares. why didn't i recognize him earlier then?

i came to the conclusion that...he wasn't meant to have caught my eye...until today.

i mean...there're people who are part of your daily living. you see them every day, work alongside them and all. so you kinda know that they exist, but you don't really know that they're there.

this old man made cycling with one leg look effortless...but judging by the glimpse of a grimace on his face, he obviously felt some pain.

this guy should be the one on the adidas advert...he'd be the epitome of perseverence and the phrase "impossible's just a word thrown about by losers"....

uncle...you're my hero. i'll try to give you a smile every time i see you...thanks for making me realize how good i have it.

as i left siasr after uploading my reports, eng hai asked if i could host the 4th of May launch...

he also quipped something that's so not eng hai...

"it's great to have you with us!"

i guess that's the kinda compliment a girl needs to get her spirits up. this girl has had a rough night, and a helluva morning as well. so yeah...for the rest of the day, she was running on the steam of eng hai's words.

i also realized that compliments can only hold you up for so long...before you sink back into what got you down in the first place.

because the commendation was made about something you know you're getting better at, not about the thing that got you down.

so yeah...i'm still a little miffed about falling down, but thanks to the bosses' faith in me and eng hai's constant positive reinforcements, i'm getting by.

and oh...angus made me realize why i kinda feel a bond with the sstt.

they reminded me of the "to hell and back" pals i had in camp new hope.

ask me about them the next time you see me if you don't already know.

this is one thing i'd love to share.