I travelled to Singapore to see the solar eclipse last year. This meant that I had to get a plane train and an automobile to get to my destination and then the next day I spent nearly two hours getting to the Science Museum to get a pair of glasses so that I could look at the sun during the eclipse. So I made quite an effort to see a natural wonder happen in real time, in the flesh so to speak.

As I mentioned earlier I ended up not getting any glasses because everywhere I went they were sold out and so I didn’t know what to do, because it is way too dangerous to look at the sun with the naked eye and so I was pretty well stumped as to how I could solve this problem. I went back to the shopping centre near the bus terminus and thought that I would just get the bus to the nature reserve and give up on my plan to see the eclipse and anyway no matter where I was in the city I would still be able to see the sun.

I passed McDonald’s and thought that I would pop in for a coffee and I just happened to look up through the glass awning outside McDonald’s and low and behold I could see the eclipse, I put on my dark specs and looked again and I could see the eclipse perfectly. I could not believe it.

I stood for some time and the crowds started to swell under the awning as we all looked through and watched one of nature’s wonders. I stood there for quite some time, in fact until the full annular eclipse arrived and then a bit longer as it began to pass. All this time I took pictures with my phone and I took a few pictures with my camera, which I’m glad to say, have turned out remarkably clear indeed.

I went into McDonald’s for a coffee and sat down for a bit and rested my weary legs and my neck was getting a bit tired and strained for looking up for so long. In the middle of the restaurant there was a group of young guys, maybe 14 years old or so and they were sitting in this circular booth playing games on their phones and stuffing their faces, meanwhile outside one of the wonders of nature was taking place and yet they have their noses stuck in the virtual world on the phone.

Is this a sign of the times or has it always been this way?  If they had no phones would they still be inside or would they have been outside watching the nature’s spectacle for free? Either way I thought to myself that they have missed out on something that they may never get to see again.