Courtesy is a thing of the past. Today we headed to Ikea for a quick lunch and some coffee. The festive break attracted a horde of families and thankfully we managed to find an empty table cluttered with plates amidst the incessant market-like chatter. Now Ikea’s cafeteria-styled eatery encourages their patrons to put away their plates and utensils at designated areas before they leave the place. Generally pampered, most people will break the number one rule of courtesy by not clearing the tables after they’re done. Okay no biggie really.
Then Boon went to get some coffee but returned to our table empty-handed after a couple of minutes because the coffee vending machine queue was literally longer than our national record-breaking longest
ketupat. The situation didn’t help when one chap was holding a tray with a few cups to fill with coffee. Okay, so the chap was being efficient, I mean no point having so many people queuing up anyway.
Awhile later, Boon decided to queue for the coffee again while I nibble on some bread and people watch. And there standing at a corner was a domestic helper, elbows nonchalantly propped against the shopping cart. The family who brought her felt it was best that she didn’t join them at the lunch table but to stand guard over the shopping cart. Or perhaps it was the maid’s decision to stand apart from the family because she was too embarrassed to be seen in public with her thoughtless employer.
And all of a sudden a lady seated at the table behind me audibly rattled to her husband how ungrateful their child is for complaining that there’s nothing to eat at Ikea. So she’s having a tough time dealing with her pre-pubescent picky eater kid but shouldn’t family business remain as such? After much yabbering the parents abandoned their (perhaps angelically disguised bratty) kid at the table on her own and disappeared somewhere else. Maybe they went to buy her food.
Meanwhile the table on my left were seated with a family of four. One of the young kids dropped a fork and no one bothered to pick it up. Were they waiting for the fork to grow legs and walk away? Well they waited in vain because Boon picked it up when we got up to leave. And in the true spirit of our fellow countrymen, we left the cluttered table as it is. It wasn’t us
mah, why should we clear?
So let’s laugh at ourselves and be socially more aware of others.
