John

Since I was writing 'the-people-in-my-life' sorta posts, I thought I might as well complete the trilogy.

Two days ago, I came home and my mom goes "You have another letter from John." Excitedly I opened the bulky envelope, to find, as always, a neat handwritten letter inside along with many newspaper clippings.

John.I met John when I had gone to Queensland, Australia last year.He is 60 years old.He is a bus driver and tour guide there.He had picked me and my friend from the hotel to go to a theme park.We were his first passengers, so we were chatting the whole way. While we were gettin off, he offered to take us ladies to an 'Aussie' dinner one day, before we left.We were really surprised but said yes anyways.

That night when we returned to our hotel, there was a neat handwritten note from John,asking us when we were free for dinner.He also offered to take us to the rainforest on his off day, if we were interested.We were not sure whether to take the dinner offer or not.We agreed anyways.

Over dinner,we got to know John a little better.He had a thing for Indian culture and wanted to know more about it.He showed us his house and all his collections from around the world.He explained to us that when he was young and backpacking, a lot of strangers had helped him along the way and he felt it was his duty to do the same.We realised that he was genuinely a very nice person.

On Christmas day, everything in Queensland was closed down, much to our dismay.John happened to be free and gave us a 'non-touristy' tour of Gold Coast.You see,John was doing tourism as a part time course and had to write about such different places to take tourists to.So he did his homework while showing us the places.It was probably the best day of our trip. We learnt so much and went to places we normally wouldnt have known of.We got to know him better as person.I cant describe how much fun we had!

Well, it didnt end there.A week after I was back in S'pore, I received a huge parcel from him, with lots of small 'Aussie' things (vegemite,kangaroo pins,postcards,newspaper articles...).From then on, every month, I would get a call or a letter or a postcard, something from him. Always neatly handwritten along with interesting articles.

John fell and injured his hip bone last month.I wish him a speedy recovery.