i'm supposed to be studying

oh well. study break, lah? hehe. surfed around for a bit, and read blinkymummy's blog today. rather enjoyed reading, and strangely can relate to it even. but then she types alota chinese stuff which appears as square blocks to me. :

oh well. if u have the time, go read too, anyway, if rockson loves her....lol.

Geylang yesterday was a very interesting experience. not my first time walking thru the red light district (first for gilly bebe and ally), so i tried to pt out to bebe what other guys have told me about identifying brothels - the number plates in front, the lights, etc. but she proved me wrong that "bigbig number in front is brothel" by going "ay! that clan house bigbig number toooo!!" ahahah

but still the "sadness" and "starkness" of it all still hits you in varying degrees. Seeing young foreign girls, sitting with old men at the coffeeshop with the forlorn look on their faces, you cant help but take some sadness back with you. Old men bending low to the ground to look into the skirts of the ladies sitting down. price negotiation between a male foreign worker and a female sex worker in a walkway as we squeezed past them, the sex industry has definately spilled out of the brothels and onto the streets, because streetwalkers are so common, such that a lone girl standing alone would make you think "is she or isnt she?" in certain stretches, it really does feel like women are just objects.

Geylang is just such RICH in culture, is really because there is sleaze. "blue-collar" food, bright lights, suffocating traffic, streetwalkers and the regular joe. it's grimy, gritty, but it's real. no nice pavements, to grassy turfs (all trampled on) and the residents and business people work side by side together with each other, sometimes with tension, sometimes with understanding. When we asked residents if they wanted to relocate the red-light district, surprisingly some said no, and reasoned that "they mean no harm, they know to stay out of the residential areas because there is no business here." there were no real complaints about it at all.
Had pretty interesting talks with the sex shops, coffee shops, hardware stalls and residents of the area, but it would be really interesting to have some indepth study of the sociology of the place. haha - but i;m not a sociologist! but the diversity of the location, would make for an interesting study, lah, i think - though too lazy busy to actually sit down and read a whole journal article one it. zhiwei was really observant i have to say. he pted out the lack of grass, the appearance of joss-stick shops near the temple districts, and also the presence of alot of thai coffee shops and hairdressers in the area as well.There are also social welfare groups there as well - AGAPE, the ex-convict restaurent etc.
Loads of buddhist temples, mosques and churches.

Gillian at the end of the day said very exhaustedly - Geylang is really, quite so very colorful. and i think she meant it. lol.

will probably post some pics when i can get back to hall, haha, wah lao we're like tourists in singapore man.