Sunday, December 21, 2008
Our young ones
A second rude encounter on a Sunday
I avoided shopping on weekends and crowded places. But yesterday, a Sunday, I needed to buy rice.
There were people exiting slowly at the bottom of the escalator. I too had to slow down with a 10 kg bag of rice in my own standard 4-wheel trolley. As I exited sideways slowly behind some people, careful not to bump them, a voice came quite loudly behind me, "Aiyah, uncle, why are you blocking ?"
Being shocked I turned to look behind. The voice belonged to a tall very fair skin young Chinese; it looked like he has not been under sunlight. "Why do you come so close behind me", I said.
He walked over my trolley and turned into an aisle, and that was that, I thought.
As I reached the aisle he turned to look at me. That was when I lost my cool, "Why don't you fly ?"
He retorted, "You have a problem ?", a typical statement of those who feel that they have the upper hand.
"Which school do you come from ?"; that got his senses, and he turned away." Don't you see the people in front, you bum !" was my parting gift to him.
Beside a bum there were angels.
Later at NTUC Fairprice, I was taking time to open a plastic bag for potatos.
A middle age lady asked, "Can I help you ?"
"No need, I will get it open slowly, thank you."
Some of these rolled plastic bags stick at the open end, making it difficult to open unless the fingers are moist. Some people wet their thumb with their tongue, but I usually crease the edges to make a small parting and then peel the sides apart.
There were other occasions when kind souls voluntarily came and lifted my laden trolley up the steps. They had thought that I was having great difficulty when in actual fact I was doing it slowly step by step in order not to damage the wheels. Their kind act could have caused injury to their back if they were not strong enough as they had to lift my laden trolley bending sideways, but I could not stop them in time; they were too quick to act kindly.
Ron
I avoided shopping on weekends and crowded places. But yesterday, a Sunday, I needed to buy rice.
There were people exiting slowly at the bottom of the escalator. I too had to slow down with a 10 kg bag of rice in my own standard 4-wheel trolley. As I exited sideways slowly behind some people, careful not to bump them, a voice came quite loudly behind me, "Aiyah, uncle, why are you blocking ?"
Being shocked I turned to look behind. The voice belonged to a tall very fair skin young Chinese; it looked like he has not been under sunlight. "Why do you come so close behind me", I said.
He walked over my trolley and turned into an aisle, and that was that, I thought.
As I reached the aisle he turned to look at me. That was when I lost my cool, "Why don't you fly ?"
He retorted, "You have a problem ?", a typical statement of those who feel that they have the upper hand.
"Which school do you come from ?"; that got his senses, and he turned away." Don't you see the people in front, you bum !" was my parting gift to him.
Beside a bum there were angels.
Later at NTUC Fairprice, I was taking time to open a plastic bag for potatos.
A middle age lady asked, "Can I help you ?"
"No need, I will get it open slowly, thank you."
Some of these rolled plastic bags stick at the open end, making it difficult to open unless the fingers are moist. Some people wet their thumb with their tongue, but I usually crease the edges to make a small parting and then peel the sides apart.
There were other occasions when kind souls voluntarily came and lifted my laden trolley up the steps. They had thought that I was having great difficulty when in actual fact I was doing it slowly step by step in order not to damage the wheels. Their kind act could have caused injury to their back if they were not strong enough as they had to lift my laden trolley bending sideways, but I could not stop them in time; they were too quick to act kindly.
Ron
# posted by chunmu @ 6:53 PM 
