While giving free haircuts in Geylang... "A few weeks back one of the guys was telling me about some of the difficulties about his life as a migrant worker. In fact just the day before he had lost his phone. It was very devastating to him because that was his lifeline to his family. All his contact numbers to home were on that phone. I said let's just try call your number, maybe we will get lucky. We were so happy when someone picked up! The person who answered said he found the phone in Little India. I offered to pay his cab fare to bring the phone to us and he agreed but said he could only get there in about an hour. So we sat and talked while waiting. We talked about all sorts of things. I got to hear his life story. But an hour went by, then two. And now the guy wasn't picking up the phone anymore. It was obvious he wasn't going to return it. Eventually we had to give up and said our goodbyes. A week later I got a call from an unknown number. It was that same guy and he had a new phone. Somehow he remembered my number. He just called to say thanks. He was really touched anyone would bother trying to help him and spend so much time with him. He said, "I told you I have two brothers, but now I have three. You are my brother."

I've always been into cowboys. Then back in the 80s I spend 3 years in Arizona and the fashion stuck. "Were you working on a ranch?" "I was doing a PhD in digital signal processing." Singapore has the smartest cowboys.

Yen-Lu

Overheard: "Can you pick me up?" "No you are getting too big for that." "Pleeeeeease?"

"Last week I was in a motorcycle accident in Jakarta: I flew off my bike and hit my head on a pole, breaking my neck in 3 places. When I came to, nobody was around and I had to hold my neck firm with my hands and get a taxi to the hospital. Then I was flown here to get medical attention. It's kind of a freak accident: only 3% of people with this injury survive it." "What were you doing in Jakarta?" "I work there. I'm a spinal rehabilitation therapist."

"I love discovering new things and I wanted a way to share them. At first I had a regular blog but when Google Glass came out I knew it would give me a way to share my experiences with people in a more meaningful way - to see the amazing things that I've seen. It was not easy to get a pair though. I relied on favours from a lot of US based friends because you can't get them here in Singapore. There's quite a group of us doing it now - we have 5 pairs and 17 people contributing to the project."

"We used to train together on the National Taekwondo team. But it was too hard to keep up with the training schedule when I started working full time. Competing nationally is a huge commitment. But I stay involved with coaching. The team is really quite amazing. Last month Singapore sent 3 competitors to the Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships and came back with 4 golds. And Sister Linda was one of them.

"I come from a fairly sheltered background but recently had the chance to work on a play with lots of kids very different than me - some kids were rich, some poor, different races and mother tongues, local and international school, little kids and teenagers. Really different. It made me realise that when you interact with people from other backgrounds, it can be hard to understand where they are coming from - because they may express themselves differently or have habits you are not used to. There was this guy who would always hit me on the back which can be annoying. But actually that was just his way of being friendly. You won't understand this unless you really spend time with people different than yourself."

Doris

The Prodigal Son

"I was born during the Japanese occupation. Of 6 children, all my siblings died except for one sister who was taken away by a relative. It was hard to survive back then. There was no food and I almost died too. But my parents prayed to God every day that I may live so that at least they would have one child left. I am old now and alone. Never married. No children. My parents are long gone. I cannot afford to get sick because there is nobody to care for me. So again I pray to God that I may live and be healthy. From beginning to end, my life has been in God's hands."

"Singapore is a wonderful country. There is fighting in so many other countries but here there is peace and we have a roof over our heads. The only problem is money. I am not so educated. And without education, there is little money. And without money, it can be a hard life."

"I'm a retired economist. I've just written a book on why the US should abolish income tax. There are far better ways for the government to fund itself."

"When I was a child, girls would never wear trousers. But then women's lib came along and they started to wear them all the time. So I figured, if women are allowed to wear trousers, men should be allowed to wear skirts. That's liberation too, right? So I started with a kilt and realised I quite liked it. After that I tried other skirts. I now I wear them regularly. Not all the time mind you - just whenever I feel like it. People sometimes tease me and ask why I am wearing a woman's skirt. But look at me. I am quite clearly a man. So this is not a woman's skirt. It's MY skirt. It's a man's skirt."

"We run occasional food drives to support the folds in the rental flats nearby. The rental at these flats is really cheap - about $40 per month. And so it seems they have it pretty good compared to the homeless. But most of these residents are living alone and are very old. Many have diabetes and may have single or double amputations making it almost impossible to go out. They are old, poor and isolated. I used to think the poorest of the poor are the homeless. But there are worse forms of poverty. Being old and without any human contact is worse."

"I come here to Toa Payoh from Whampoa every day to sell my cardboard and cans." "How much do you make?" "Usually 4-5 dollars."

Making A Difference