My manners are in the toilet

My mother used to tell me about how the quintessential Brit spoke politely with a 'stiff upper lip'. Brits are generally still courteous (however straight their faces are). It's nice having people say 'hi how are you' and 'thank you' and who will wait patiently in a queue till the train/bus doors open. I used to think Singaporeans were the rudest people on the planet but then I realised Malaysians weren't too far behind. But then I came to the UK and found out that Eastern Europeans and orang hitam are equally ill-mannered and unpleasant. Ok I am generalising. Obviously I have met some nice denizens of the aforementioned countries but the rude ones are more common than not. Actually you know what it's not just them, it's everyone. People everywhere, be they red orange yellow green blue indigo violet, are SO RUDE these days. And it's really picking at my patience. Sometimes I feel like I want to blow up at the cashier in Precious Thots Midvalley cos she's too busy chatting over to the phone to her friend in the shop upstairs while I have to wait for her to be done before I can pay for my items?!?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!!@#$%^&*(!@#$%^&*()(*&%$#$%^&

Ha let me give you more examples.

Mr and Mrs Lim, Eugene and I were in Strada having lunch. The round table was unstable because its base was lopsided. No big deal right? You get tables like these all the time in kopitiams. Just shove a folded piece of paper underneath it right? Anyway Eugene calls the waitress over and goes "hi can you do something about this table it's shaky and we can't exactly eat our food... can we switch tables or something?". Waitress looks around at the semi-busy restaurant and says "i'm sorry i can't do anything about it" (OHO SO DID YOU JUST PLACE YOUR IMAGINARY FRIENDS AT THE EMPTY TABLE NEXT TO US?). Eugene says "well we can't possibly eat our food like this" and you know what the stupid waitress says, she says "ok relax alright?!?!"

What the hell kind of reply is that!!!!!@#$%^&*#@!@#$%^&%$#@#$

Then the manager came over, but she was also from the same country as the stupid waitress and was equally stupid cos we had to tell her that if she couldn't move us to another table she could just stick a piece of paper underneath the table! Seriously, you would have thought our idea was pure genius.

Ok I have another story that I just thought of that doesn't exactly have to do with this topic but I just remembered it and it's making me soooo mad. It was during summer in KL; I was supposed to go out somewhere and I didn't have the car. So I called a cab to take me to Taman Bahagia where I could hop on my good old friend the LRT. My house is 5 mins drive from Taman Bahagia and a cab ride normally costs under RM5. The uncle stopped on the main road opposite the station and he said, RM8 please. I died on the spot. In all my years of taking taxis from my house to Taman Bahagia I have never been charged RM8 for a one-way trip. I said, "Uncle mana boleh... why sangat mahal?!" He tried to justify the fare by referring to the meter. I said, "Eh Uncle, saya dah lama tinggal di sini and saya tak pernah kena charge 8 ringgit untuk duduk dalam cab selama 5 minit" AND THEN YOU KNOW WHAT HE SAID TO ME, HE SAID "Uncle pun tinggal dekat sini... RM8 biasa tau..." I wanted to punch him but then since you never know what cabbies hide in their Protons these days I decided to err on the side of caution and give in.

There are few things that REALLY piss me off - inter alia rude people, argumentative people, Malaysian politicians and uncleanliness. The last time I lost my temper with a rude waitress was a few months ago in this Chinese restaurant opposite Eugene's house. I remember being so angry and if it wasn't for the fact that my life is governed by social niceties I would have done unthinkable things to her. If you want to feel anger, you should watch Mahathir's interview with Stephen Sackur on youtube. That feller is a bigot.

Non-Malaysians don't usually understand why anyone would want to live in Malaysia. I get laughed at you know! The discrimination is so blatant, how can anyone deny it? To have a National Economic Policy that favours Malays? Everyone knows multiracial harmony and equality is just a farce to boost tourism. The more I think about how I am treated like a second-class citizen in my own homeland, the more I think to myself, why should I go back to a country that doesn't appreciate what I have to give? Why should I be loyal to those who only use me for their gain? I wish my grandparents had jumped on the Singapore bandwagon when they seceded from Malaysia. At least I would be able to buy bags and shoes by the dozen since the Sing dollar is 2:1 to the pound.