Guard dog

The following post contains words written in anger and totally one-sided opinions.

Played badminton at 2pm. I did not play the morning session because when I checked my wallet today, I was running low on cash. Badminton is not a cheap hobby and I had blown my budget with the reintroduction of squash into my sports calendar.

Today was a sunny day so I went by bicycle to Yat Sen hall. When I arrived, I was the first one there and the gate to the hall where we usually enter was chained with a padlock. I looked around and found the watchman sitting in the shade about 40 feet from the gate. He had this stereo blasting Hindi music.

The music was really loud but I had confidence in my abilities. You see, I'm known to have the loudest voice at home. I was sure I could shout loud enough to drown out the high decibels of his music. So I give him a really loud "HELLO!!". Drats! No reaction. I let loose with a louder yell and still no reaction. I tried shaking the gate to make a different kind of noise hoping it might get through to no avail. I was getting annoyed with yelling because the people in the houses nearby can hear me making all this noise.

I shouted a few more times getting angrier and angrier with each breath. I was hot and sweaty from the bike ride in the sun. I really wanted to sit in the shade and get off my feet but this fucking deaf watchman was not looking my way! I am sure a few of those HELLOs would have made me champion of those shouting contests the Japanese are famous for and here was this deaf guy sitting in the shade listening to his annoyingly loud music totally ignoring me!

I used some colourful and creative language to vent my anger but it only made me angrier. I'm sure the dude sitting in the shade didn't hear me anyway because I didn't yell those words.

Finally after about 4 minutes of standing around in the sun, the dumb guard happened to look my way. At this point I was all yelled out so I just glared at him and pointed at the locked gate. Every thing he did just made me more angrier and he was dragging his foot walking slowly towards the gate. I was really pissed off. When he got close, I said didn't you hear me yelling? And he didn't say a word. I was beginning to suspect he heard me and just ignored me while I was shouting for him.

I didn't want to say anything any more so I just walked through the gate and ignored him. When the rest of the badminton guys showed up I was still fuming so when they greeted me I didn't say anything. I just sat there trying to calm myself down. Another guy showed up and he asked me what's wrong and I just said "I'm feeling a bit hostile right now".

It took me quite a while to calm down and then I went into the hall to have a good badminton session. On my ride back home, I was climbing up a steep hill and a dog came out of nowhere and started barking at me coming very close to my bike. My usual reaction to these stray dogs is to get angry and to go after them. At that point in time, I think I ran out of anger. I didn't feel anything. It was trying to chase me or scare me and I was just yeah, whatever you dumb dog! I just kept climbing that hill at a steady rate. I guess the dog got bored after getting no reaction from me so it left.

A word to those of you who are afraid of dogs. Don't ever run if a stray dog comes right at you. They would love to chase you and those son-of-a-bitches can run faster than you can. I usually stare them down. If the dog or dogs think you're not scared, they lose confidence and leave you alone. Unless if you're dealing with a mad dog then you may try to get as far away as you can. I've never been bitten but getting shots for dog bite can't be fun.

Anyway, I got home safely on my bicycle. No cars tried to run me over and dogs didn't maul me. Tomorrow, badminton.