I have found a hobby for when I am retired. The other day I was walking back to work after lunch when I saw thos long poles with something hanging from them. Good thing I had my local friend with me who explained me what that was all about.
No idea what those things are doing there? Well, apparently this is something found in the areas of old HDBs (those are the housing buildings offered by the government and most Singaporeans live in them) and it is a traditional activity among older people. Turns out they catch birds and put them into those cages (don't ask me how these old people manage to catch the birds, I was very surprised as well). "And what do they do then?" you might wonder. Well, they sit nearby and watch them. Really. That is what they do all day. Watch their birds:
Sometimes they also like to play chess, read the paper or just sit and listen to their birds. But as you can see it is very curious how all these old men are sitting or lying around not doing anything not even communicating with each other. Also the cagesr are pretty high so I am quite sure they can not really see them... I asked my friend why the cages were so high. He did not really know either. He just ansered "Because birds like to be high above the ground". It is a legintimate answer, yet 3 meters seem a bit ridiculous for a bird in my opinion...
The cages are super pretty, by the way. And the tiny water bowls inside are silver-colored so everything is pretty fancy. So much for the golden cage.
I was really surprised of findind this piece of tradition so close to my super-modern working place. It gives a lot of inner peace... I should learn how to catch birds.
uuuh, das ist echt cool :) pero not half as classy wie petanca jajaja, ich dachte mir vielleicht könnte man die kombinieren, so, vögel werfen, und weil man nicht weis wie weit die fliegen werden ist es viel spannender :)
ReplyDelete