Attack of the sour plums.
Lo and behold! I finally uncovered the mystery behind the weird stench in the staff toilets at Swensens (Changi Airport Terminal 1 branch). Each time I enter that toilet, my nose would never fail to detect an unpleasant aroma wafting through the air. No, it neither reeks of urine, nor any other human excretory products. The stench is just… rather foul, and slightly on the sourish side.
All this while, the same question is going through my head each time I used the toilet during my past two and a half weeks working there. However, I finally discovered the answer today.
The answer to the mystery comes in the form of several pairs of shoes and socks.
In narrow corridor leading to the toilet, there is a rack containing several pairs of ’sour plums’ which, I’ve just realised, have been lying there for the past God knows how many weeks, or months, or years. It’s little wonder that the stench seems to be getting stronger as time goes by.
Why do I refer to them as ’sour plums’, you may ask. It’s mainly because the stench is mostly sour. Furthermore, looking at how wrinkled the socks and shoes have become, doesn’t it somewhat remind you of the texture of a sour plum?
Ew. Double ew, and triple ew. My apologies to those who enjoy eating sour plums.
Ever since I made my discovery, I never dared to step into that toilet anymore. After my shift ended this evening, I quickily grabbed my things from the locker area (which happened to be so near to the offending toilet that a slight scent of sour plums also lingers in that area) and made a mad dash for the public toilet some distance away from the restaurant.
The public toilet certainly smelled a lot better. The scent of rose perfume greeted me as soon as I opened the door… as opposed to decaying socks and shoes. I have this suspicion that one of my co-workers is suffering from 香港脚.
I never liked the smell of shoes. Looking at that entire rack full of decaying socks and shoes, can you just imagine all that belonging to someone with sweaty feet? All that, stuck in an enclosed area with little or no ventilation. Terribly unhygienic, I must say.
At this moment, I am struck with a sudden memory of a “Sour plum war” I had with my cousins two years back, in which we flung our used socks at each other. :P Teeheehee.
C O M M E N T S (11)
..eeewww… i happen to like sour plum…. thank you
Suffering from what? Did you mean to have the character there instead of the word? You’re probably going to tell me athlete’s foot or some other fungal thing… just curious! That’s so funny about the shoes though. Erm.. yeah, ew! Would they stopped you if you sprayed some Glade in there?
w.w..shoes? ewwwww. that’s like, ewwwww..
Oh boy, I hate that smell. And knowing the source of that smell makes meten times more paranoid about going anywhere near it. Why is there a rack of old socks and shoes, may I ask? A rather obscure place to keep the shoes I much say, and you tell that they’re old too. Absolutely disgusting. You know, i absolutely marvel at your ability to form parallels between the most different of things.
Eww… sour plums..
testing .. Hope this comment will show up this time. :P
i can comment now! weheeeeeeeeeeee :)
sour plums? euhhh i like sour plums.. the real ones i mean. =_=
Can’t you complain to someone and get those ’sour plums’ removed from there? They’ve been there long enough and I’m sure that other people will appreciate it. :).
I hate plums, period. I cannot imagine how sour ones taste or smell! Are you sure they are one of your co-workers shoes? They might have just been left there….
I know which socks war you are talking about. ;) The one which you filmed down with your video camera in Genting (June 2003). Bwahahaha… All of us were lauhging over it!
Eww.. shoes.. Thanks goodness I don’t happen to like sour plums… =P
haha. thank god for e invention of those aroma balls for our shoes. lol! the airport’s public toilet is always so clean! lol. sour plum war? yucks. =X