Little-Wonder.Net

08 March, 2008

Ignorance, ignorance, ignorance.

23:37:36 | Daily Life, People, Ranting, Thoughts | writebacks (7)

Considering the lack of English education foodstall handlers have, trying to talk to them is a real pain in the ass.

Even more so when you have a food allergy, and you have to attempt explaining to that auntie behind the stall why you don’t want this or that in your food while she stares at you with a perplexed (and annoyed) expression, as if implying that I’m a picky person.

Take today for instance.

Lotus Thai Viet - was the stall’s name, at the food court at the top floor of Tampines Mall. Yours truly was craving fried olive rice, and thus placed my order with this blank-faced auntie at the stall.

I watched her garnish the dishes ordered before me, and noticed that she had sprinkled crushed peanuts over most dishes. That was when alarm bells started ringing in my head, and I quickly informed her that when she came to my olive rice, I strictly did not want any crushed peanuts over it.

No response from her.

I reiterated everything in Chinese and she seemed to understand - well, at least that’s what I thought. Because she nodded.

Eight minutes later (which is quite a long wait for a food court), my olive rice finally emerged from the kitchen behind the stall and said auntie began garnishing it. Before I could react, she had flung an entire spoonful of crushed peanuts all over my food.

That was when I yelped.

“Noooo, didn’t I tell you not to add any peanuts?”

She stared at me, blankly. I began to hastily convert everything into Chinese.

”
我不能吃 err … peanuts! I have an allergy to peanuts! 我对 peanuts 有过敏!”

It’s rather obvious that this auntie was clueless about food allergies, since she only seemed to understand the first part of my sentence where I mentioned that I did not want peanuts. She then proceeded to scrape the peanuts off the top layer of my rice using the same spoon which was previously dipped into the bowl of crushed peanuts which still had peanut crumbs all over it. There was still quite a lot of peanuts (which was more difficult to remove) on the rice when she was done.

“Nah. Like that, can or not?”

I felt like screaming. I have a fucking allergy! Didn’t she understand? Is she like, dense or what? Little or a lot, it does not change the fact that the damn rice still has peanuts on it.

“I HAVE AN ALLERGY, DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND? 我吃 peanuts 会死的!”
(The last sentence translates into: I might die if I ingest peanuts.)

Another lady who happened to be standing next to me at the foodstall understood my plight and she too, tried to (unsuccessfully) convey the seriousness of the situation to the still bewildered looking foodstall auntie who was still waving my plate around in mid-air (yes, with peanuts intact).

We spoke to her in English, to no avail. We tried translating everything in Chinese and still, we couldn’t wipe out that blank look on her face.

Is a food allergy such a difficult concept to understand?

It’s hard to miss considering how there is much emphasis on allergies splattered all over the newspapers these days. Ignorant fool.

The good Samaritan lady then offered to take my original plate of peanut-contaminated olive rice on my behalf since she intended to place an order for that as well, while she ordered the foodstall auntie to whip up another plate for me, peanut-free this time.

I was too flustered to thank her properly. Can’t remember her face either, since my head was seriously pounding at the ridiculousness of the situation (and the foodstall auntie’s stupidity) to concentrate on anything. But whoever she is, wherever she may be - a middle aged, medium height lady with short curly hair, wears spectacles and a white t-shirt, thank you so very much for your help.

Seriously, I am not the only individual with multiple food-allergies (especially peanuts) in Singapore - and I sympathise with any other person with the same condition as me.

Likewise, I doubt she’s the only ignorant idiot in the whole island of Singapore - there’s bound to be many more, which means that everyone else with multiple allergies are at risk of bumping into idiots like her (and struggle to make him/her understand how potentially severe food allergies are).

Allergies are not meant to be taken lightly. Even a couple of peanut crumbs is liable to set anyone with a more severe form of peanut allergy into a full-blown anaphylaxis shock.

I’m still fuming over the whole incident even now.

Ignorance is not an excuse. If someone suffered or dies from an allergy shock due to your negligence (i.e. your lack of knowledge about allergies, or any other medical condition that has food restrictions), it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still answerable and liable to the affected and his/her family members.

18 July, 2007

Stomping on grapes.

21:29:39 | Thoughts | writebacks (5)

Friends accept one other for who they are, and will not in any way, attempt to change them.

Friends pay attention to the feelings of friends, bearing into mind that friends are not people you can simply stamp upon and take for granted that they will always be there for you despite the offensive remarks you sometimes hurl at them.

Friends do not make judgements against you.

Friends do not attempt to bring you down, attempt to destroy the confidence and pride you have in the person you are. Rather, they support you in whichever decisions you make, and respect you as the individual you pride yourself to be.

Friends treat each other as equals. They do not place themselves on a pedestal, deeming themselves to be in any way superior to the people around them, or their peers.

Friends do not put on airs. There’s a very fine line between sharing one’s successes, and being downright arrogant.

Recent events that have taken place, plus the amount of mulling I’ve done at home have suddenly released an onslaught of memories of a certain event which took place in July 2005 which nearly shattered me completely.

It makes me wonder why do I continue to put up with everything.

Should I continue to suffer inside, or just swallow everything down and wallow in self misery like I usually do just to let the friendship remain?

———

If the above sounds familiar, yes I am talking about you.

Despite us being rather close, it’s never been easy approaching you to discuss my negative feelings, so I’ve resorted to writing it out (without disclosing identities) since I express myself better in typing anyway.

Then again, considering the pretty low opinion you’ve formed of me (adjectives you’ve used towards me in the past: naive, ‘caught in my own world’, immature), it’s pretty darn likely you’d simply brush everything aside anyway.

I’m thankful I managed to preserve my self-confidence and self-respect this time.

07 April, 2007

My (Boring) Life Story

23:22:34 | Thoughts | writebacks (9)

Now that I am (almost) turning twenty-one in just a few months more - the first stage of adulthood, it is high time I came clean with certain issues.

Despite having reached the epitome of late teenhood, I am happy to declare that I’ve managed to steer clear of the several vices (okay, not really vices, but I couldn’t find a more suitable word) that teenagers my age and below tend to engage in.

Because I swear that this is going to be one hell of an interesting entry, please read on. ;)

I don’t club, have never clubbed, and will never ever club.
On my eighteenth birthday - the age where it is officially legal to step foot into those noisy places full of mad teenagers hopping their heads madly to strange music, and ingest weird, colourful concoctions they call cocktails.

“Brenda! You’re legal! Let’s go clubbing on your birthday!”

“No thanks,” is what I’ll say.

And it is not because of parental restrictions. I just do not want to.

I’ve always visualized clubs as dangerous places where girls get high on whisky, flaming lamborghinis and what-have-yous, get drunk and get whisked off to dubious places by strange men.

Although what I’ve described is the extreme cases where girls do not take care of themselves, clubs are in reality, places which I will never be caught dead in because they are noisy, chock full of people, reeks of alcohol and smoke and are frequently patronized by new-victim-seeking sex addicts.

Even if people deem clubs as excellent places to de-stress and catch up with friends, I can do the same thing at Starbucks Coffee, thank you very much.

Seek new experiences, they say? I’d rather keep my sanity.

I have never ingested a single drop of alcohol.
Again, no. Not even after I’ve turned eighteen which is also, the legal age.

I’ve accompanied friends and relatives to restaurants where they’ll start placing orders for beer or wine (and again, other alcoholic what-have-yous). Whereas yours truly will simply pick out a simple drink such as my favourite fresh watermelon juice from the drinks list.

People have coaxed me to “just take a sip”. I’ll simply refuse.

At a certain friend’s birthday, the group had decided to play a game where the losing party will have to chug down an entire cup of vodka. I strongly declined, and chose to stay out of the game altogether.

Although people have a tendency to put alcoholic-drinking and socializing together, I have never seen the link because I can name several hundred other ways to socialize without having a single drop of alcohol touch my lips.

And why am I so against alcohol? Because it does nothing good to my system, that’s why.

Furthermore, alcohol fries your brain and makes you all muddle-headed. And I, for one, do not like being muddle-headed because I start feeling insecure when I can’t think properly.

If I need a drink, I’ll stick to Milo, full cream milk, hot chocolate, fruit juice or water. They give me just as much joy. I am just sick and tired of being coaxed or forced to ingest any form of alcohol because I just do not see the need to.

(No offence to my dearest offline friends who like alcoholic drinks. This entry isn’t in any way directed at any of you.)

I don’t watch movies or television. Even if I do, the program is rated nothing NC16 and beyond.
I get the same thrill indulging in my novels, thank you very much. I do not need a big screen to tell the story for me.

The only form of programs that actually have the ability to attact me to the screen are either reality programs in the form of talent shows (especially singing, which is one of my biggest interests), or comedies. Otherwise, the tube will remain switched off.

I don’t watch movies because I am rather against the idea of forking out nine hefty bucks just to be confined in a freezing cold dark area for several hours on end with the sound system booming into my ears, not even for a good movie. Additionally, I tend to fall asleep in movies. (Why? Because all of the above gets me so angsty to an extent that I try to fall asleep to lessen the agony.)

If I actually see a show I’d like to watch, I’ll wait until the DVD comes out, purchase it, and watch it happily in the comfort of my own house with the volume set just the way I want it to be.

That leaves the biggest question. Why no programs NC16 and beyond?

I’ve pretty much accepted that issues such as homosexuality, pre-marital sex and all things sex sex sex are already rather prevalent in our open society. However, I do not wish to have them enacted right before my eyes on big screen. My eyes will BLEED. Keep it to the bedroom, please!

Of course, the amount of scorn I’ve received about this has been endless. Brenda, you should learn to open yourself to the real world, (I’m already open-minded enough. Thank you very much.) Brenda, this is EDUCATION - you can apply all these knowledge in the future, (Oh, please.) Brenda, you’re such a wimp. (Thanks for the compliment!)

I’m simply turning a deaf ear on these. Like I’ve said, I’m aware of these going-ons. I just don’t see the need to watch these in action. Additionally, I have pretty strong opinions against such issues which I shall not go into detail here because it may offend the general public.

But uh. One confession - I don’t mind vulgarity coated humour programs because I do curse and swear quite a bit. - Sheepish grin.

I am too clean for my own good - claims several groups of friends.
And I’m proud of it.

I am usually the last to get dirty jokes when they’re told, the last person to be let in on various deep dark secrets lurking around the lives of the people around me, and the person people laugh at because of the first issue of being the last to get dirty jokes when they’re told. (Yes, I know this sentence is looping.)

In real life, I am usually always known as the “innocent one” among all all the groups of people that I knw. Although having such a title attached to me usually implies that “aww, she’s still a little girl” (which I do resent, a little), I pride myself in being mature in mentality, especially when it comes to deciding what’s good for myself.

To me, growing up doesn’t entail having to open yourself up to the nitty gritty details of everything going on in this world. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m aware - but I do not need to be too aware.

And to the sceptics and this certain fellow who dared to proclaim right in my face that all this cleanliness is just a front, you’ll soon find that it isn’t.

I have my own principles, and I stick by them. And this is what defines who I am.

Oops, and this entry is getting a little long.
Yes, yes, yes. I know. But it so happens that the above issues were running through my head just several minutes back and I felt that I just had to write about them.

Additionally, too many people are starting to question my individuality (especially when it comes to my opinions on certain R21 issues) lately and it is starting to bug me a little.

AND.

If everything I have written above makes me sound like a boring person with no life, let me convince you that I do lead a happy enough life by curling up in bed with a good book, de-stressing with a cup of hot chocolate or the occasional (OKAY. frequent) retail therapy, catching up with friends at Starbucks, spending quality time with my family or just making people laugh with my antics. I am an interesting person, really!

I salute you if you have come this far.

Meanwhile, back to studying.