Catching Fish In A Drain

The following week of the Gala & Charity Dinner, John and Wilson went back to their respective parent's house. Isaac, Paul and Mark were going to attend a three-day youth camp. Since Albert P who was busy marking his SPM scripts preferred not to appear at Calvary Care Home (CCH) at all, I volunteered to take my annual leave to "babysit" Luke, David and Daniel who would be left in the house when George, the driver, was away.

At first, these three youngest boys did not feel the absence of their elders. They watched movies on DVD while I cleaned up the kitchen. In the afternoon, they began to pester me to bring them for an outing. As I was not holding any CCH keys, I sought advice from Albert by telephone who suggested that I locked the gate, brought the boys to the nearby public library and later took the key from him.

I did not want to disturb him, so I decided to simply close the gate and drove those restless children out to have a drink and some snacks. They directed me to an eatery at Bukit Beruang but it was close. Finally we stopped at a night market where many hawkers were already doing business at four o'clock.

Within less than an hour, I managed to calm down the three fellows by giving them a treat of sugarcane juice and apam balik (crispy pancake) from stalls. I supposed they were satisfied to stay in the house again after eating chiffon cake that I had bought the previous day. But they were still planning another excursion and in return invited me to join them!

I followed them to a neighbouring house. At first, I thought I could participate in their activity. When I saw them climbing down to the drain one by one in such a skillful way,

I chose to remain where I was instead of risking my old bones and fragile teeth by attempting to tiptoe down the steep sandy edge of the drain, sweat heavily to get hold of the pipes and leap clumsily to end up crashing on the pails.

This beautiful site

was not only an interesting spot for fish catching,

but also an ideal place for catwalk!

David actually went to the drain to release at a fish which he had reared in the Care Home so that it could live better in the nature. But after that, he excitedly joined Daniel and Luke to catch other victims.

I hardly understood these children's logic, how about you?