Feeling Jaded

With the New year and only a few more days before Chinese New Year, I am feeling really glad for a lot of things in my life now.

I’m glad my beloved grandmother is now staying with me so that I can take care of her.

I’m glad for my loving family and good friends.

I’m glad I’m finally recovering from the slipped disc I somehow got myself.

I’m glad I’ve been to the one place I’ve dreamt of going since I was child.

I’m glad that I got that long-awaited promotion.

I’m glad that I now have my own cozy home to go back to everyday.

And the list goes on…

So, why is it that I sometimes feel so jaded, even out-of-place? Ever since I went to Egypt and back, I have lost most interest in catching up on daily news. I cannot bear to watch the news or turn the pages to read about yet another death or suffering or petty issues. I used to find the current political changes in Malaysia riveting but now it’s just getting really old. Sickening even. I’d rather spend my time reading movie reviews. (The Star has some really funny reviewers by the way and they crack me up every time. Kudos to them.)

Anyhow, it is not just limited to the news. I find that I sometimes drift away when in conversation with certain people. There so many things I don’t give two hoots about or are just plain old boring to me. I find so many topics to be irrelevant somehow so much so it is getting really sickening if I had to endure yet another conversation about it. I just tune myself out to avoid from rolling my eyes or sniggering. Mostly I just stifle the yawns.

I was updating my address book the other day and I realized that I had accumulated a lot of contacts over the years. About 5% of whom I do not even remember anymore so I just delete them off. I think it’s the same with life. Over time, some things will stop being a great deal or like a pearl, they lost their luster. I find myself getting bored with things that used to be fun and I do not know why. Have I changed or has they stopped being fun? I have no idea.

Encounter with the Idiotic Kind at the Food Court

Yesterday was a lovely Sunday morning and since my grandmother is in town, me and hubby took her out for breakfast with us. She had taken a liking to the char koay teow (fried koay teow) in the food court of my local marketplace so off we went. It was still early so there were plenty of seats available. We found a nice table and Grandma started pulling out a chair as she reminded me to order her plate of char koay teow minus the prawns.

As we were having this conversation, a man came and started laying his hands to pull out a chair opposite of the one Grandma was pulling out. I looked straight at him and he looked away. Thinking that he would understand, as civilized people normally do, that we were at the table first and were about to sit down, I turn to leave my Grandma to place the order. Imagine my surprise then when I saw him waving his entire family over, about 10 of them and one by one they started sitting down their fat asses! At least, some people have the courtesy to ask if they were not sure.

At this point, my hubby just got into the food court after parking our car and he asked me why Grandma and I were standing around without a seat when they are so many empty tables around. I replied in a loud voice while glaring at the idiot, ‘Oh, actually we were supposed to sit here but SOMEONE took our seat!’. Either the imbecile didn’t hear me or he pretended not to hear me but boy, was I pissed.

I stomped my family off to the next table across the aisle and took the photo below as a reminder that there are still many Malaysians out there who deserves to have my foot up their ass!

Never Say Die

Last weekend, a certain middle-aged male stranger at a certain mall event caught my attention. Not because of his good looks or anything of the sort. I have never come across any Pierce Brosnan look-alike middle-aged man yet for that matter. Mere mortals like you and me hardly age as well as Tinseltown folks. Anyhow, this mall was organizing some Crime Prevention Campaign and was offering free packet drinks to passer-bys who could answer the questions they were throwing to the floor.

I was watching the event from one floor up and at first, I was surprised when the MC refused to accept answers to his questions from this ‘Uncle’. Then only I realized that this uncle had already answered a few questions before and was carrying a plastic bag of free packet drinks he got earlier. The greedy fella wanted more!

I hang around for a bit and was amused when uncle raised his hands to answer EVERY single question. Goodness, give other people some chance. The MC was annoyed and he kept uncle waiting at the sidelines with repeated retorts such as the below:

“Mei tou leh ar, uncle” (Not your turn yet, uncle)

“Lei mm hor yee seng yat kei hai tou geh” (You can’t just stand here all the time)

I mean, this uncle had no shame. I was cringing in embarrassment on his behalf even though I was watching from one floor away. I would have been red like a tomato in the face if I was him. He would raise his hands to answer a question and sheepishly cup his face at the side when the MC rejected him but in another 30 seconds or so his hand would be up in the air again waving in the MC’s face.

This went on for a good 10 minutes or so. I didn’t know how long he actually tried his luck in securing more free packet drinks as my movie was about to start and I reluctantly went away to the cinema to watch Ip Man. A terrific movie by the way and when this comes from one who hardly watches any Cantonese movie, it means the movie is real good.

Anyhow, back to the uncle, embarrassing and cringe-worthy as he was, I actually salute him for his persistence!