Hmmm, maybe HE was intrigued by our Big C-CHEEKS!
Who is the HE, you wonder? It's the homeless guy by the street, or so we thought. Forgive me for having bad judgements in his dressing and approach, but after a warm introduction, I felt mean for thinking about it. Well, I can't help it, because I've been cautioned (and had bad experience) by people to just walk on, if any of these guys come up to you. You see, the thing with the people here, they love to drink and get drunk.Even the homeless and beggars drink to forget their sorrows.So I've seen many old men drunk, sleeping outside the shops, with a beer in the hands.
So anyway, back to my story. This old man roughly 78,came up to Amna and I, while we were rushing off for class and we had walked away. Only having him said" DOn't be afraid! You girls are from Malaysia right?". At that question, I looked up and answered a big "YEAH!", while thinking, how did he know? ( I've been mistaken as Chinese once, Filipino a number of times).
So he went on telling about how great he thinks Malaysia is, the flora and fauna on the STAMPS (oh sangat seperti kajian tempatan, kan?!) and about his friend who is now staying in NIPOH. "It's Ipoh, yeah" I said. "Ahh, he married a beautiful Malaysian Girl". Haha, so I guess what he was trying to tell us, was that he thought we were as pretty as his friend's wife (who would've probably reach the ripe age of 80! tsk tsk tsk ). Then about the postcard from Malacca his friend sent to him- an old man sleeping on a TRISHAW. How happy and excited he was about that postcard.
"You girls are very friendly,aren't you? You know? you girls love to smile". Hemoh hemoh, pandainya atuk ni ngorat,! And you know what? He gave a peck on our Cheeks. I was stunned, but reminded myself that I was in Ireland, not Malaysia. Later, when we had wanted to make a move, he said " Aren;t you girls going to give me a kiss too?!". Alamaks! Nasib bau macam atuk-atuk yang baru lepas mandi sapu bedak!...Oh and he thought we were nurses!
We were all giddy about the whole incident and couldn't stop laughing and thought it was really some weird old man, but while telling my housemates about it, they said that they had met the old man before, with him asking and telling about the same thing! Hmm, so much for being special.