Year End Down South

"The crowd gave me a shock"

Been spending my last few days of 2006 down south. I've never liked it there that much and that has not changed. Everything is too orderly - no rubbish anywhere, no smoke butts, no spits on the sidewalks, no one jumping queues in the washrooms, no looking from left to right if cars would stop at the zebra crossings. They even have free shuttle buses to take you from condos where there are no train stations and their shuttle buses arrive and go on the dot, not a second late, not a second early.

Having said that I mutter under my breath at every sight of the untardiness of the people, their actions and their differential views on almost everything.

I was at the busiest place in that country one of those days. Seen crossing the road were hoards of people that made it seem that the whole population of the country decided to be there. Lunch was where I was heading to but I wish my stomach wasn't churning with hunger then. Not only were the prices horifying after the conversion, I couldn't order lunch until I found a place to sit which, can be a horrifying experience. Had to learn a new tactic of getting a place to sit - stand beside some people who were finishing their food and stare at them if they didn't get up immediately after their food have long gone. I was treated the same way and worse after. While my lunch partner went on to order food, I was asked no less than five times if the seat was taken and each time I said 'yes' I could feel their eyes shooting daggers at me. Once a woman just came and dumped her shopping bags right on the chair.

It wasn't a nice experience shopping in the crowd either with no less that twenty times being jostled and elbowed by people ignorant of other human existence. What's even more perplexed is how the signs of 'sale' can be noticed from miles away but not the human beings next to these shoppers. I never got the chance to buy my favourite Aussino bedsheet at $8.80 because the serious shoppers ganged up and snatched every piece as the sales people brought them out.

I spent the rest of my stay in the utterly clean swimming pool away from the crowd, away from crowded eateries. The minute I stepped home, it was a sigh of relieve even though the women pushed their way through while I was queuing up for the loo. Some things never change.