An answer to why MJ loves children/kids.

Mister God must have sent me a rebuke for what I said in my post last week, because this week's meeting-session with the youths were postponed. Instead, they needed help to handle the children to Bukit Chandu for the morning and noon.

The Primary Two boy with the Greek name first pointed out to me how the tinted glass (for the top windows of the bus) made everything look old, "as old as my great-grandmother and father's times"; he was refering to the sepia-toned images looking through the tinted glass.
When I pointed out that the Hougang estate is probably twenty to thirty years old, he proceeded to remark a million times how old is it; because he was born in nineteen ninty eight (or therebouts). He then launched into intense debate as to whether Kovan's Heartland Mall was bigger than Hougang Mall, citing that the latter had more stories than the former, when I mentioned that the former was squeezy and full of people. He decided to to bring in Compasspoint, which I noted to him was probably the largest among the three shopping malls. He concluded his debate by saying how confused he was with all that thinking. The Greek emperor had his fears too; when the bus went into the CTE underground tunnel, he bawled about how afraid he was, how he was going to faint, and he wished we didn't have to use such tunnels. Only after much asking that I discover he was worried about ghosts.

Another tiny girl of Primary One age whose name I had trouble spelling and pronoucing: She reminded me of a much younger Jacqueline Chan Mui Mui, with the two ponytails (but without the air of arrogance), and I found out she had her pet topics as well. After I casually remarked that there was an ant on my hand, she excitedly told me how she liked ants. My attempt to educate her that ants do bite, especially with kids like her, was fiercely rebutted by the fact that only red ants bite, and that black ants do not. I could not catch the part about brown ants, but I did hear her and sense her disappointment about not being able to find black ants in her house. She told me about two ants she used to have, and when I quizzed her about what their nicknames were, she said matter-of-factly that they were dead, killed by her younger brother, with the required hand gestures. She also revealed to me that she has a pet cricket, which I think is awfully cool of her.
Obviously, I was quite disappointed not to have taken a photo with her because she had to rush off for tuition. On a Saturday afternoon, and she's only in Primary One.

And I was happily pleased to discover that one of my youth had gone to Starbucks for an interview, and will try Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf next, after my enthusiastic suggestion.