“Insert swiftly, remove completely” has become our unofficial motto, a play on the instructions displayed on a carpark ticketing machine. Get in, shoot, get out; another one down, a tick on the checklist of 100+ selected heritage sites. Time is of the essence, but speed is not always possible!
From having been apprehended by campus security and dragged off to invited to see their management (the hullabaloo has since been cleared), to harassing a handsome cock (twice! – once in the day, and once at night) on the steps of a Hindu temple, or being detained in conversation with an elderly kindly security guard1, it’s been some crazy weeks, and fun times. It’s been extremely enlightening too, and this project has given us an excuse to go to all those places we wouldn’t usually visit otherwise. Or couldn’t usually visit otherwise, without a legitimate reason. Dropping by places of worship or former British- or Japanese-occupied historical blocks of concrete isn’t what we’d normally plan for lunchtimes, after work or over weekends.
Just three more to go!
1 Initially reluctant to let us through the gates to shoot an old airport, saying that we needed to write in beforehand to get permission, he relented after a bit of persuasion and also after having considered that the premises was going to be handed over to the government in a few days with accessibility becoming non-negotiable. He had a laboured, slurred speech and walked slowly with a limp, impairments that came about from a nasty “fall from a high place” when he was much younger, and he spent years learning how to crawl, walk, run, and talk again. A fighter against ill fortunes, he then took to volunteering at the hospitals, inspiring others and providing counsel and therapy assistance. He secured a job as a security guard, thanks to the folks at the PA who “took pity” on his condition. But now, with the handover of this old airport to the authorities who would be employing armed guards, he would be out of a job and would very likely be retrenched. He thought highly of our degrees and jobs and assured us that we youths had a bright future ahead. Should we ever start up running our own businesses, and should we need someone to sweep the floor, he joked, half-seriously, we should remember him. I had taken a photo of him posing in front of the airport and promised to send it to his address.