Rues of Roo

You know how in Friendster it becomes a sort of obsession to see how your friends are all interconnected. I have one friend who over the past few months I have found bit by bit is connected to six other friends by all sorts of means; through JC and church mainly. The amusing thing about it is that this wasn’t discovered all at once, but instead was prolonged over a 6 month period and each time comes with a ‘I wonder who else you know that I know’ epilogue. The intertwining nature of Singaporean life can be a handful, and as always it confirms my standing belief that you really should not have an affair in this country. Your mistress is probably your wife’s best friend’s sister-in-law’s daughter.

My favourite incident has to be sitting in church listening to a visiting speaker and my friend informing me: ‘I grew up with his daughter, she’s really nice!’ –insert other random facts- while I was ‘oh really? That’s nice’ (although with a more sincere tone, of course) Then halfway through the sermon the guy starts about his daughter and an accident she had which rung a bell. The first thing I thought was ‘hmm I have a friend who was in a similar accident’ and then of course suddenly it clicked. So, turning to my friend I asked ‘what is his surname?’ followed by a ‘is his daughter A?’ to which I pulled out her number on my phone and she exclaimed ‘how on earth do you know her??’

Funny.

I think my second favourite ‘oh you know them too?!’ is with another friend over msn talking about marriage proposals.

Me: ‘My friend proposed like this -details details-’
Friend: ‘Yah I had a friend that did that too!’
Both: -pause-
Me: Is your friend E?
Friend: YES!

Bizarre. Seriously.

Oh, and another one I only just found out was that a friend who also happened to offer me a job a few months ago turns out to be a colleague’s brother-in-law and is also the friend of the above mentioned friend discussing mutual friend’s proposal (who is also connected to friend). Gahhhh.

Anyway, I suppose in Singapore, in an attempt to expand your social circles all you end up doing is making them smaller which is actually quite a nice thing. You end up becoming closer to people you otherwise would not have the opportunity to and it all just becomes one nice happy family. This becomes more evident during weddings. Attending that of a not so close, but nice, friend over the weekend it was just really quite incredible to see people I haven’t met in a couple of years. And not even people who you don’t want to see (okay there was one…) but people who you have had fond memories of and wondered what they were doing now. Sure, objectively speaking all I can say is ‘look, if you haven’t been in contact with them it means neither of you wanted to be friends anyway’ or ‘if they can’t be bothered then why should you’ but I guess lately I’ve been all happy and warm and fuzzy which is -really- weird.

Something’s wrong with me. And no, it’s not love (Shu and Jan don’t you even dare jump to conclusions). Perhaps it’s the Singapore air. Full of disillusionment and false security. Okay, okay, apologies, I promised someone I would not be so honest… I mean, cynical, about Singapore. So maybe it’s just the wonderful people that I know. Filling me with happiness and joy and a generally positive and wonderful green fields and blue skies outlook on life. Because, you know, life should be one big Friendster. Just connecting with each other and meeting new people! Yay!

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