It's Newtown

"Eh betul ke* had bulls running in Newtown the other day?" came Ronnie's message via Whatsapp.

Not exactly sure which "other day" he was referring to, I mentally played back the events from a week before. I did recall a group of school children covered in multi-coloured powder boarding the bus but that was in the city, not in Newtown. Sharing that information with him, he insisted that there were bulls running loose along King Street. 

One hour later, I was still thinking about bulls. I mean, why would bulls be running loose in my area? It's not that I live in a village. Far from it actually. Not wanting to look like someone who doesn't know what's going on in the neighbourhood, a quick search on the internet revealed the headline - Water buffalo on the loose in Newtown. And I laughed and laughed and could not stop laughing. 

In a nutshell, two water buffaloes escaped from their make-shift enclosure , headed for Newtown and were chased by a filming buggy, a police car and a fire truck. The part that cracked me up though has to be this statement below. 

“It was kind of bizarre but it was Newtown so I didn't think it was that unusual,” she said. 

Prior to living in here (even after), we get comments like 

• Newtown is quirky
• Newtown is different
• Newtown is eccentric
• Newtown is Newtown
• Newtown is full of characters
• Newtown is this or that etc. 

I never really understood these comments until this incident. Now when I walk down King Street, I keep an eye out for weird happenings. Who knows, I might be lucky to witness it this time.

*betul ke = is it true