Friday, July 27, 2007

The inconsiderate bus passenger

Of the 2 buses I take to office from home, I noticed that passengers like to sit on the outside leaving the window seat empty. This is pretty inconsiderate because 1) the bus gets filled pretty fast, and people will have to squeeze into the inside seat, 2) those who sit outside are not alighting that soon, so again, it troubles other passengers to squeeze into the window seat.

Still, the ultimate in inconsideration came from this PRC passenger I bumped into recently. On this day, I boarded the bus (from office) and there were quite a few passengers who again occupied the outer seat, leaving the inner one empty. I march defiantly to the first lady and indicated I wanted to sit inside. Man, what she did made me puke blood.

I noticed that she placed her small bag of small oranges in the empty seat beside her. What?! Your oranges paid bus fare that they deserved a seat?
Never mind, she very very reluctantly and very slowly and carefully took her bag of oranges (Hello, those are oranges, not EGGS!!) away, and again at snail speed, shifted the paper bag below her, and barely moved her legs out for me to squeeze in. By then everyone was stuck behind me becos they were waiting for me to move into the seat then they can move to the back of the bus. Meanwhile, I GLARE and STARE at her with a very pissed off face, which unfortunately, all other passengers behind her can see, but she did not notice becos she did not look at my face at all. So anyway, since she gave me very little space to move in, I did not try to be polite either. I pushed my way in, pressing hard against her legs. Stupid woman!

Monday, July 09, 2007

Once Too Many

I am a stickler for timing, and I usually try my best to be on time. As such, one of the things that gets me pretty pissed is people who come late. If they are sincerely and genuinely apologetic about it, of course I will forgive them and be nice about it and feel less upset about their delay. If they have a very valid reason (caught in traffic jam), I also am understanding about it. So, it’s not that difficult to pacify me if you know u will be late rite? How late is considered late? I give 5 – 10mins grace. Anything more is LATE. Unfortunately, I realized that in being punctual, I am actually showing faith in the people I am meeting – that they will be on time. Regrettably, people I usually meet are close friends (since they are good friends, so we are more likely to meet up often). And very sadly, I always stupidly turn up on time to receive the ‘I will be late, you all go ahead first without me’ sms. It’s gotten to the point of 99.9999% predictability, and yet I refused to be late, and always turn up at the stipulated time. And even more unbearably, I tolerate this late behaviour of my good friends because they are my good friends and I dun want to scream at them. (If it’s my hubby, I would scream at him). And because I dun exhibit visible upset at their late behaviour, it seems to have gotten to the point of ‘it’s ok to be late’ and hence no apology needed. Just the usual ‘you all go ahead first’. How not to vomit blood when in the group of frens you are meeting, they all tell you ‘to go ahead first’ thinking the rest will be there on time (there are others who are punctual and who will then buffer your lateness). But if ur group is as small as 3 people? 2 people tell u that, what does the equation come to? One day I must reply them ‘Yes, I will go ahead first with me, myself and I.’