"Do I sound like Andy Lau?"

That's what an extremely talkative cabby asked me just after he spontaneously burst into a ear shatterin rendition of one of Andy's songs.

But before we go into that, mebbe i should share with you what happened...

Here i am happily seated after a long wait at the UE Square cab stand, with some bloody irritating teenage kids who happened to get in queue just before me. They with their extremely Posuer poses and designer jeans and fashionista wannabe hairdos, were boisterously proclaiming their prowess at luring the opposite sex.

finally a blue comfort cab pops up and i get in and give the cabby specific directions on how to get to my house. It being rush hour and all, so I didnt want to leave it up to him to ketok me for another additional 4 dollars or so by going the obviously more expensive route.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm all supportive of cabbies who attempt to strike up conversations with their passengers. comfort should really train its cabbies to recognise the 3 tell tale signs of when a passenger is not interested in talking.

1) I'm extremely non-responsive
2) I'm having a conversation on my mobile
3) I'm asleep

today, I was non-responsive. But this cabby goes on a tirade about who he thinks is responsible for all the terrorist acts in the world. I shall leave out this portion of this discourse, b'cos nowadays political comments in my country are liable to get one thrown in prison.

THEN. he goes on to extol the virtues of the different sorts of women. at which point i start messaging a friend to call me on my mobile phone to rescue me from having to listen to Dr Phil. mebbe those darn teenage kids would have been better off in this cab and me in the nice merc cab they got. damn.

After 10 minutes or so, he pops a cassette into this tape deck, and starts to sing, loudly, with feeling and slightly tuneless, ok.. more than slightly tuneless, a rendition of some Andy Lau song.
He does it with such gusto too! I'm about to pop my iPod earphones on and crank the dBs up to 1000000millionandthree + 2, when he turns to me and says in hokkien

"Do I sound like Andy Lau?"

Not expecting a comment from me, he goes into a tirade of "compelling arguments"
- I have feeling - I'm Self taught, learnt to sing at a Karaoke place - I have 4 ulcers in my mouth else I would sound even better - even this JC kid who took my cab asked me to sing more.

spare me please.
let me listen to the singapore idols.
anything...

and if i can't escape.



...kill me now....

So I paid 12.80 for a 23 minute cabaret.




thanks mr I for calling. and saving me for the last 30 seconds or so.