This incident took place at about 0810 in an MRT travelling towards Marina Bay.
A girl was holding a plastic bag inside which she kept her wet umbrella. She realised there was a hole on the bag after her jeans got wet in the bus. So she carried the bag with the hole facing up.
But alas, the plastic bag was evil. There was a bigger hole somewhere else. As she moved the bag a little, some water dripped to the floor and splashed onto a woman's foot. The woman made a "tsk" sound.
That didn't go unnoticed. The girl carried the bag even more carefully now. But the woman was not satisfied. With her butt facing the girl, she scolded,
"Your water ... drop and got to my leg you know. ... don't stand here. Stand there." [... indicates that the author did not manage to catch the words]
The girl apologised, "I'm sorry. I didn't know there was a hole." Perhaps her voice sounded more high-pitched than she has intended. But she was annoyed. Clearly she didn't want it to happen either.
The woman said,"...[if] you don't know ... [you won't] squeeze the water out." [Ops, the speech was not very clear as the woman had her butt facing the girl the entire time. But one can guess with no problem that she implied the girl has squeezed water
out of her umbrella in the middle of the train.]
The girl found it ridiculous that the woman could say something like that. So she replied," You thought I did that on purpose?"
The woman did not say anything more.
Ok, the author and the girl are the same person. Maybe the author is too old to be called a girl but that is not important. What I want to say is maybe I should have sounded more apologetic. The mistake was mine after all. Though I doubt it would make any difference.
I brought along a plastic bag especially for my wet umbrella because I don't want it
to drip everywhere. I mean, that is very logical. Why would I bother with the bag if I'm going to squeeze the water out anyway.I don't understand how the woman thinks.
Alright, I know I did not handle the situation well. I could have offered some tissue papers the moment I got the chance, no matter how slim it was. Maybe that would show some sincerity.
romanced at 09:23hr
Thursday, January 18, 2007Oh no, I have been falling asleep on my desk three days in a row, or was it four? That's really bad. Went crossed eye today looking through some excel files. I looked through some 75 files in which for 1 file I need to take note of 4 columns of over 1400 numbers each.
I found my ring again! Was so happy when I found it in my jeans' pocket last Friday. I thought I have lost it. This ring, I called it the ring of independence, is very important to me. I bought it to show that I still have myself to depend on if nobody else cares. Sort of to say that I love myself. Haha.. so vain.
Anyway, luckily I couldn't find another that I like when I went to Prelini's Silver some time ago. That would be such a waste of money. I already spent beyond my means this month. Urgh.
I used to wear my 'couple' ring, I still keep it now actually. It has lost its other half long long time ago but I continued to wear it for a few years. I just find no meaning in it anymore. I guess this is what happens when things don't last. I wonder how long I will wear this ring before I find something else.
Finally it's Friday tomorrow. I need sleep!
romanced at 21:04hr
Thursday, January 11, 2007I am having a serious lack of sleep. To get used to working life one definitely needs some adjustments beforehand. Am happy that I am learning a lot of things at IA. And the company environment and people are so far so good. :) Everyone has been friendly. Yay. And there are so many places to eat at during lunch. Looking forward to eat good and cheap food at hawker centres.
romanced at 21:16hr
Friday, January 05, 2007My first post in 2007. Actually I wanted to post the video of fireworks that I took with my phone on New Year's eve. They were so pretty - the fireworks i mean. But my video is of course of low quality.
Oh, here's wishing everyone a belated Happy New Year.
Hmm, it feels just like any other day. I still got clothes to wash, floors to sweep and mop, table to tidy up. And this semester I am going for Industrial Attachment (IA). I can't imagine how good a life can be having to wake up early every morning and work 8 to 6. Plus, the company I am attached to is in Tanjong Pagar and they specify office wear as daily attire. Grr..
As I was saying to Yanti, one of the reasons I am in Engineering is because I don't want to have to wear office clothes and go to work at Tanjong Pagar with everybody else. Well, I chose this company because the jobs that they have for interns are something related to my course. There are quite a few 'related' companies out there that offer IA for Chem Engin students in non-related areas. For examples: one company need students to conduct a market research for one of their newly-launched product, and another need a student to work as a customer service personnel. While I understand that some students may welcome the diversity, I think these companies are looking at us students as cheap labour.
One, they are clearly looking into the wrong pool of talents here. Two, if these companies truly desire to offer 'trainings' they can always offer internships and advertise it at internsg.com. So the term Industrial Attachment would not be misused.
Anyway, back to working life. I am already complaining to whoever willing to listen about how I have to be at work from 8 to 6 everyday for 24 weeks. Not to mention the IA period is going to eat into my 3 months' holiday, which will be my last one already. I have no idea if I can survive it. And even if I survived it, comes next year after I graduate I will be working full-time and experience the same thing again. Ah, the idea of being a tai-tai is becoming more and more appealing everyday.
romanced at 17:44hr