ssshhh!

Ventured to the ginormous new library for the first time. And, on the recommendation of MS, borrowed a couple of Chinese books, also for the first time.

Whether I will actually succeed in reading them remains to be seen, since I have never ever in my entire life finished reading a Chinese book. [I reviewed the same book -- Wang Yang Zhong De Yi Tiao Chuan -- all the years of my secondary school life, without ever being caught by my Chinese teachers, who changed every year.]

As I was beeping the books through the borrowing machine, it prompted me that I had outstanding fines for books like When We Were Orphans, which I was 100 per cent sure I'd never borrowed, much less read.

Anyway, the fine was only $3.30, so I thought I'd just pay up and not kick up a fuss. But then the machine decided to eat my ATM card and I had to go queue up to speak to one of those rare species -- an actual real life librarian.

While in the queue, I eavesdropped on the funniest conversation ever.

MAN: I lost my IC and someone borrowed all these books and never returned them and now I'm being fined $50!
LIBRARIAN: [Low indeciperable mumble of disbelief]
MAN: These are all Malay books. I'm Chinese, as you can tell!