I'm becoming a weekend-blogger. One who blogs during the weekend. The down thing about being one is, you don't have the strong urge to blog those things you want to during the weekdays (simply too lazy or those things seem too mundane now), and nothing much is happening during the weekends.
And I am forcing myself to recall some of my embarrassing moments during the weekdays. It is so that you guys reading can have lil' good time laughing at me. Touched? hee hee. Okay here goes...
As the title of this entry reads, I reserved a seat on the train for my friend! Wait wait, before you go on cursing and criticisin' me bout reserving seats on public transport, please let me finish my story. I boarded the train at Yishun. There were plenty of seats everywhere. I placed my bag beside me to reserve the seat for my friend boarding at Sembawang. At the next stop, Sembawang, the morning crowd rushed into the train. And this gentleman pointed to me at the seat, signaling me to remove my bag. Where's my friend? Where's my friend? I saw her. And I point point to the stranger, telling him I have reserved the seat for my friend. As she came and took up the seat, I was quite embarrassed. The gentleman must be thinking that its totally ridiculous for someone to reserve a seat on the train. My excuse would be, it was for the next station, so I wasn't really depriving anyone of a seat right? I felt a sense of relief when he found another free seat.
One incident I encounter on train almost everyday is deciding to give up seats for pregnant ladies. Sometimes, when you are engrossed in your reading or catching your forty winks, you may not see them. And its quite embarrassing too when you lift up your head and realise there's a pregnant lady standing in front of you, possibly for a few stations. My first thought is what are the ppl sitting beside you doing, how come they never give up their seats? And very quickly it becomes clear to me that I should be giving up my seat immediately. But wait a minute (I'm not trying to be mean), the lady does not exactly appear to be pregnant, is she simply just larger in size? You know, sometimes its really hard to tell. And taking the purpose of missin' the few trains to take the direct train to Pasir Ris is to have a comfortable seat, instead of pushing around with the rest. So do I still give up my seat if she isn't pregnant? Whats worse, you don't want to embarrass them if they ain't pregnant but just big-size.
Last week, I encountered this, and I could no longer tolerate the pressure and the possible embarrassment of ignoring a "pregnant woman" in need of seat in front of me. So I stood up immediately tho' there were still several stops before my destination, without signaling to the lady the seat was for her. I felt so much better after that. I think rule of thumb for me these days will be, if I notice anyone remotely look like a pregnant lady, I will just give up my seat and pretend I'm alighting at the next station. Indeed, doing a good deed for others, is really doing a good deed for ourselves.
Finally, my last story is about the train ride too. Some people are really tired when they take the train, so they sleep. Some people don't just sleep, they go on deep sleep. Besides swaying left and right, there is a tendency for them to sway towards you more and more, and collapsing on your shoulders. I think the train seats in Singapore are quite spacious, enough for anyone to feel their private spaces are not violated. But some Singaporeans like to proof me wrong. On one of the trips, the two passengers beside me were both sleeping. The lady on my right was sleeping, straight up, within her seat. The gentleman on my left was crossed arm and swaying. Then he started to do the swaying against my shoulder. I wouldn't mind if the person next to me is my girlfriend, but HE is NOT. As he pushed towards me, I tried to lean away. And he pushed more to my side. Then I turned my shoulder in a way that he had nothing to lean on. Immediately he regained his upright position, but was still asleep. I thought, he must have noticed and will try to "sleep still". Ah, I was proven WRONG. He repeated his swaying at me again. This happened a few "cycles" till he alighted. Given a chance, if I will to meet him again, I will give him a rude and awkward jerk on his shoulders when he does his swaying. And if he keeps on swaying, I will clear my throat loudly. If all that doesn't help, I'll stand up in front of my seat and stare at him and the empty seat. Hopefully people around me will realise, we have a "Swaying Sleeper" on board!
And I am forcing myself to recall some of my embarrassing moments during the weekdays. It is so that you guys reading can have lil' good time laughing at me. Touched? hee hee. Okay here goes...
As the title of this entry reads, I reserved a seat on the train for my friend! Wait wait, before you go on cursing and criticisin' me bout reserving seats on public transport, please let me finish my story. I boarded the train at Yishun. There were plenty of seats everywhere. I placed my bag beside me to reserve the seat for my friend boarding at Sembawang. At the next stop, Sembawang, the morning crowd rushed into the train. And this gentleman pointed to me at the seat, signaling me to remove my bag. Where's my friend? Where's my friend? I saw her. And I point point to the stranger, telling him I have reserved the seat for my friend. As she came and took up the seat, I was quite embarrassed. The gentleman must be thinking that its totally ridiculous for someone to reserve a seat on the train. My excuse would be, it was for the next station, so I wasn't really depriving anyone of a seat right? I felt a sense of relief when he found another free seat.
One incident I encounter on train almost everyday is deciding to give up seats for pregnant ladies. Sometimes, when you are engrossed in your reading or catching your forty winks, you may not see them. And its quite embarrassing too when you lift up your head and realise there's a pregnant lady standing in front of you, possibly for a few stations. My first thought is what are the ppl sitting beside you doing, how come they never give up their seats? And very quickly it becomes clear to me that I should be giving up my seat immediately. But wait a minute (I'm not trying to be mean), the lady does not exactly appear to be pregnant, is she simply just larger in size? You know, sometimes its really hard to tell. And taking the purpose of missin' the few trains to take the direct train to Pasir Ris is to have a comfortable seat, instead of pushing around with the rest. So do I still give up my seat if she isn't pregnant? Whats worse, you don't want to embarrass them if they ain't pregnant but just big-size.
Last week, I encountered this, and I could no longer tolerate the pressure and the possible embarrassment of ignoring a "pregnant woman" in need of seat in front of me. So I stood up immediately tho' there were still several stops before my destination, without signaling to the lady the seat was for her. I felt so much better after that. I think rule of thumb for me these days will be, if I notice anyone remotely look like a pregnant lady, I will just give up my seat and pretend I'm alighting at the next station. Indeed, doing a good deed for others, is really doing a good deed for ourselves.
Finally, my last story is about the train ride too. Some people are really tired when they take the train, so they sleep. Some people don't just sleep, they go on deep sleep. Besides swaying left and right, there is a tendency for them to sway towards you more and more, and collapsing on your shoulders. I think the train seats in Singapore are quite spacious, enough for anyone to feel their private spaces are not violated. But some Singaporeans like to proof me wrong. On one of the trips, the two passengers beside me were both sleeping. The lady on my right was sleeping, straight up, within her seat. The gentleman on my left was crossed arm and swaying. Then he started to do the swaying against my shoulder. I wouldn't mind if the person next to me is my girlfriend, but HE is NOT. As he pushed towards me, I tried to lean away. And he pushed more to my side. Then I turned my shoulder in a way that he had nothing to lean on. Immediately he regained his upright position, but was still asleep. I thought, he must have noticed and will try to "sleep still". Ah, I was proven WRONG. He repeated his swaying at me again. This happened a few "cycles" till he alighted. Given a chance, if I will to meet him again, I will give him a rude and awkward jerk on his shoulders when he does his swaying. And if he keeps on swaying, I will clear my throat loudly. If all that doesn't help, I'll stand up in front of my seat and stare at him and the empty seat. Hopefully people around me will realise, we have a "Swaying Sleeper" on board!
Comments
even though i think u're right in saying that its only the next stop and that there're not much ppl in the train...but still its public transport...and happen that sembawang a lot of ppl got into the train...
last thing...is its me, i'll prob chop seats for my friend the way u do...hahaha...
as for the pregnant ladies part...i think you absolutely right and i can understand how u feel totally...i've also came across this situation whereby this indian lady stood in front of me...usually if its a pregnant lady/elderly person, i'll immediately stand up to give the seat to them...budden that time i took about a min to figure out if the lady was pregnant! she was also quite big size and i dunno if she's pregnant or she just has a tummy...in the end i came to the conclusion that she is pregnant and i stood up to give my seat to her...guess what? in the end she still happily sat down though she's not pregnant! how i know? haha...well...after she sat down u can just see that she's not pregnant..(i shall not elaborate the details...)...i felt abit cheated...coz she still smile at me! ahaha...luckily she wasn't offended or what...
The rest of the older trains, circa 1987, all have enough butt space but not enough shoulder space.
Worse, if the two fellas beside the empty seat are fat, fat and fat, sit there and you get squashed like pancake.
Doesn't help that my shoulders are wider than the seat. Think in 1987 people were not so well fed.