Two Observations

1. If you have been living in the same housing estate almost your entire life, you would surely be aware that some of the uncles/aunties working in the market area are the same people who had earned your business when you were still a kid and now when you are a big grown-up. Their presence is in juxtaposition with the ever-changing landscape, the only constant that renders you a continued sense of familitarity all these years.

Yes, some things do not change. Like the Uncle and Auntie couple who used to sell duck rice but switched to fishball noodles some years ago. One can't help but take notice of their coarsened features and conspicuous streaks of grey hair: they reflect the many years that have lapsed and bear testimony to their dignified hardship and labour over the years.

2. At the swimming pool. After dutifully completing the usual round of laps, my attention was seized by an exuberant group of power-kids in the midst of their swimming lessons. The instructor was a rather stocky middle-aged man who spoke Mandarin but used English to express certain technical jargons.

Two of his students, a boy and a girl who looked no older than 10, were instructed to swim front crawl for 10 laps. They did so without any complaint but neither did they show eagerness - probably because they were already quite exhausted from the training. Nonetheless, it was clear that they gave their best, not least because each of them offered to the other a friendly competitor who had to be marked. I marvelled at the youthful elegance of their stokes and the quiet but determined way they swam lap after lap.

The only unpleasant sight was the boy's father who stood throughout in the lane the kids were swimming in. Like a professor father who is zealous to ensure that his child learn things the correct, effective and intelligent way, the boy's father's eyes never left his son; he followed his every stroke with a stern face, and took mental notes on what aspects required improvement. Each time the boy was nearing, he wasted no time to correct what he perceived to be his son's weakness, in a voice loud enough to be heard clearly from beneath the water. Clearly, the obtrusive father was oblivious to his physical hindrance in the pool, while his son at the most acknowledged his sayings without demonstrating a heedful response to his eager Dad.