The number of chairs on Sungei Road has multiplied exponentially. There is literally a chair on every other corner. Years ago there might be a few straggly chairs left on the fences. But now there are dozens of chairs everywhere.
Compare this to my post on 13 April 2012 and 2 May 2012 when I first noticed that the number of chairs had started increasing. Perhaps it is people's only way of staking their presence on the very road itself, where no other permanent or physical structures have been allowed to remain.
At the corner where Larut Road, Weld Road, and Jalan Besar Road now meet, I also found a block that looked JUST like one of the fragments in the Ethnographic Fragments project (see: Jalan Besar Cement Block). It was exactly the same size, except that it had inscriptions on it. Notably, at the time, I had recorded down that I had picked up that block because there were no other rocks like it in the area and it was strikingly geometric. If that rock could talk I would have said to it, "HEY BABY, YOU LOOK FAMILIAR, HAVE I SEEN YOU AROUND SOMEWHERE BEFORE?" But I probably shouldn't be talking to rocks cos next thing you know I'd have turned into the Crazy Rock Lady...
Now I have developed this habit where every time I am in the area, I go around and snoop around all the electrical boxes that I know of. So I checked behind the electrical box along the Muslim Cemetery on Victoria Lane (pictured below, still there), and I checked the back of the busstop (long since cleaned away).
On Victoria Lane, facing the Muslim Cemetery (First documented in March 2012)
I probably check every single box every few weeks, unless I am out of the country. Whilst waiting for Bus 7 I decided to use my phone as a torch to examine the back of another electric box near the busstop, one located at a more visible spot by the road, a spot with fairly high human traffic. Two Malay Men were standing there right next to the box, chitchatting, and the entire bus stop was very full as if there had just been a big social event at the Madrassah behind the Muslim cemetery. I expected to find nothing but...
...BUT WHAT WAS THIS?
A FAINT SIGN OF THE YANGTZE SCRIBBLER THAT WAS CERTAINLY NOT THERE A FEW WEEKS AGO!!!
I am thinking that due to the highly visible nature of this box, it must have been cleaned before I got here. However the traces remain! AND IN A HIGHLY VISIBLE SPOT. This wasn't like previous ones, tucked away in a stairwell, or hidden behind a tight corner where no one would usually see, but facing the main pavement next to a bus stop! Also, coincidentally, this sign also chose to reveal itself to me AT THE VERY MOMENT THE BUS 7 STARTED PULLING UP INTO THE BUS STOP BAY SO I JUST QUICKLY TOOK SOME PHOTOS AND RAN FOR THE BUS. The two men next to the box must have been wondering why someone would be pointing and making unintelligible excited sounds at the box and taking photos of it with a flash and then quickly running off.
So in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I think this means the trail of the Yangtze Scribbler is still hot. Whoever he/she is, he/she is probably still alive and active in the area.