Massacre in Geylang...and Toa Payoh

With all the renovation and major hacking up of concrete done to J's apartment block, the natural world was feeling the strain. Since their homes were being threatened or even invaded and destroyed, lizards, cockroaches and ants residing in all the secret nooks of the block have had it tough. They have been forced to migrate...and where else, but some to J's apartment. (Just in case you think we are slobs - we've always been conscientious in the hygiene and not-leaving-food-around department, so we've never really had many of such guests in the apartment before.)

However cruel it all is, we decided in the end to resort to a variety of ant, cockroach and even, lizard traps. The lizard traps are the most primitive. They are these little cardboard tunnels where the base is made of a super sticky material, so that when these little houselizards tramp through the tunnel towards that tasty snack - schlick - they are stuck.

The Untimely Death, 19 Aug,morning: Yesterday, we went home to discover one of them lizards caught...but more than that. When we discovered the lizard that night (it must have been caught early in the morning), it was already partially devoured by a whole army of ants, little red ones mixed with a few larger black, super-speedy ants with their slender legs.

The Massacre, 19 Aug, midnight: For some strange reason, the ants must have overcome the sticky tape in order to get to the lizard. Otherwise, the first troop of ants might have sacrificed themselves, and their bodies became a safe path for their comrades to get to the lizard. Shocked at the sight, out came the insecticide spray, and the ant massacre began.

The Cleanup, 20 Aug, morning: Too tired with the killing last night, J left their carcasses on the floor. This morning was the clean-up, and woah, there must have been thousands and thousands of those ants floating in the pail.

The Second Attack, 20 Aug, evening: This evening, home with our groceries, we found another unsuspecting lizard roaming in the kitchen. Well-trained with the insecticide spray already, J knocked him out. But it was a resilient thing - dropping its tail and playing dead, but it was still hanging on.

The POW, 20 Aug, night: Not quite knowing what to do next with the actor-survivor, J trapped it under a jar. Hoping it would perhaps decide to die for real. At the last check at midnight, it was still alive.

Speaking of migration and massacre, Wheyface, her husband and I went to watch Perth: The Geylang Massacre tonight and there was also plenty of both in that movie...literally and figuratively. Harry Lee (a first mate, security guard, taxi-driver then designated driver for Mai, a Vietnamese prostitute) longs to migrate to Perth, that elusive paradise where all his friends have already retired to. Trapped in a life and country where he is unloved, unwanted and emasculated, the movie aches with Harry's longing. He has seen and can see (dream) Perth, but something invisible to him, yet oh so clear and inevitable to the audience, keeps him away.

The movie continues what is by now its own genre of Singaproe films on the island's underdogs and the society's underbelly: Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys and Meepok Man; Kelvin Tong's Eating Air and Royston Tan's 15. Wheyface had wondered why almost half of all films made in the last 10 years in Singapore have this slant...an instance yet again of teenage angst and rebellion against the official insistence on order and cleanliness? Probably. But I am glad that this time, Perth also successfully invited the audience's sympathy and empathy for the character's struggles.

Hmm, perhaps we ought to release the lizard after all from its glass trap.