Now You See It, Now You Don't

(You See It or Not: This glass pane is one of my favorite places to take street shots. The reflections change with the light. The reflections appear when abundant light is shed on the glass, and fade a bit if the light turns dim on it. They toggles between the two, on and off with passers-by turning round from and into behind the glass. This puzzles the mind whether the image through the glass is real or illusionary)

This is Monday. The cleaning lady is getting ready at her workplace by the bustling Nathan Road. Now, she is wheeling a big yellow thing along. The big yellow thing has a jargon for it, Si Lo Bo, or literally Little Robot. Si Lo Bo is, in fact, a name adopted for any big, automatic unknown-for-the-its-name machine since it was used for a character in a Japanese children's programme aired in Hong Kong in the 70s. So, there are Si Lo Bo this and Si Lo Bo that. This Si Lo Bo is actually a high pressure water sprayer.

It took her some five minutes to set up the hose with the help of her co-worker. Usually, there are three people working together. One wheels the Si Lo Bo, another holds the sprayer head and the third one missing hereshould carry a canvas shield to stop the water from spraying elsewhere. I retreated my camera before they turned on the machine and the water sprayed elsewhere.

I am very familiar with an older model of this Si Lo Bo. I worked with it for a summer job back in my school days.