(4) Are the Wines Seductive or the People Drinking them?
Ever since I learnt to read, I have enjoyed reading words on signboards and posters. Now at 55, I still have this habit! The only difference is that life is now more sophisticated and I am armed with a digital camera. So the above photos to share with my readers!
1) Christine Soh invited me for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Bukit Timah Community Club after her ballet class. I saw the catchy poster and warned Christine to be careful, lest the live crabs should come after us. The people operating the restaurant are from China.....hence the wordings on the poster. I am sure many of my readers must have come across even more interesting signboards in China. Nevertheless, the food was very tasty and reasonably priced. Who cares about crabs coming alive!
2) During a training session on bungalow sales at our company, Dennis Wee Group, our trainer, Mr. David Foo, showed us a powerpoint of a photo he had snapped some years back when he was an agent dealing with bungalows. The poster made me laugh because I recalled a funny incident that took place some 42 years ago at our home in Jelutong Village, Penang.
My alert second sister, Ean Ean, was about to fall asleep when she saw a shadow lurking around the window. A man was hovering around and soon he had the audacity to flash his torch into our bedroom. Sister pretended to sleep but suddenly she screamed loudly, "Pencuri! Pencuri! Thief! Thief!" Sister has a natural voice that never needs a microphone.....her loud voice must have scared the night lights out of the burly man for he fell off the stool with a thud! Later he scrambled out of the gate. The whole family woke up and we saw huge footprints on the floor and stool. Our dog, Rover, was not in sight! He had gone avisiting his girlfriend in the neighbourhood! "Never mind the dog; beware of owner". Whoever dares to deal with my ever alert and witty sister.! As usual, I slept right through the whole ordeal without waking up and missed all the fun!
3) I saw the interesting signboard when I was teaching at the RELC. I complimented the sales staff and asked her to convey my appreciation of the play with words to her boss. The sales staff thanked me profusely for just the day before, a lady from a church which holds its meeting in the same building, had approached her and told her the spelling was wrong! It should be "Forgive" instead of "Forgift", the unwelcome visitor proudly asserted.
"Just come lah for your church meeting and shut up if you don't know enough English", she grumbled to me. "Aiyo! These people with a holier than thou attitude who only know the Bible and have no language ability and poor sense of humour. What for put "forgive". So boring. The whole world knows , "To err is human, forgive is divine". I smiled and reminded her to be happy for it takes all types of people to make up this world.
4) I like the last signboard. A clever play with words. I saw the signboard when my bus passed by the shop and I intended to stop by one day at Balmoral Plaza to take a shot. However, I was lucky when we came back from a lunch treat given by Mr. Okuda and we passed by the shop. I requested our colleague, Mr. Alvin Pang, to wind down the window of the car so that I could snap the photo.
Words! Word! Words! If only people realise the power of words and the emotive and connotative qualities in them. Then we would all be more cautious with words, for words can heal; words can also kill! Let our words be like a soothing balm to our listeners' ears.
Papa always reminded us to talk less and think more for once wrong words are spilled, they are difficult to retrieve for the damage has been created. Words, and only words I know........
Gan Chau
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