Do men always have to have the last say?

Was eating dinner at O'Brien's at The Central when I came across two incidents whereby the men had to have the last say.

Firstly, it was a mature man who obviously has never drunk chamomile tea. Ever. I guess he wanted to show the lady friend that he was very gentlemanly and looks for value-for-money in a 'suave' kind of way (note the inverted commas).

When the tea came, he asked the waiter how come the tea looked as pale as water. Ha!! Hello, just in case anyone of you was like the man I saw (who didn't know zilch about chamomile tea), it is supposed to be a pale yellow colour. The wait staff was very nice though. He obligingly brought a pot of hot water or what I presumed, could be the tea itself and added more.

If anything, I think he just showed his lady friend how lacking in knowledge he was when it came to that area of tea. From overhearing them, I also get this feeling that he is a little stingy, trying to get more out of things. This is not pasar malam (flea market. Direct translation from Malay: Night market), you know?

Then came another couple who ordered a wrappo. When the food came, the guy (another mature guy) made some comment and said "Woah! It doesn't look like we will be full eating this". He was implying that the wrappo was small in portion.

Now, I would understand if you were eating one whole wrappo on your own and complained that it was too little. He is, after all, a guy. Guess what? He was sharing it with his lady friend! So why complain?? It was their choice to eat there and therefore, he should not have any grouses and if he did not feel too happy about the food, etc, order more or don't come the next time!

In my world of weird theories, I would conclude that this is a male ego thing. That they have to show the females that they are the boss around and they call the shots. They also make such comments to make themselves feel all-important, but in actual fact, it just shows otherwise. When will these big boys learn?

Calm amidst frenzy

I would call this another crazy day, except that I think I have overkilled the word "crazy". Anyhow, everything was not going according to plan.

I was supposed to go do my medical check-up today and I fasted since 10pm the night before. It was 8.40am and we were still in the house when I was supposed to have reached the clinic. Not that there were any appointments made but this was precisely the problem. It was on a first come first served basis and getting there late means waiting longer in queue and getting hungrier by the hour.

Dad was supposed to send me there as he needed the car today, but because he woke up late (coz I did not have the heart to wake him up earlier, seeing that he was tired the night before) and both of us ladies of the house occupied the toilets, he ended up being really late.

Just as we were about to go, my mum said something really not so nice. She told me, if I were really in such a hurry, why not go take a taxi? She sounded real challenging and in the end, I really did for I knew if I waited for Dad, there would be more arguments along the way and it would not be good for blood pressure results.

When I reached the clinic, I had to take pee samples right? Well, I had very little pee as I thought fasting meant no water too. I had to drink 5 cups of water before managing to deliver. Well, there was no doubt that I kept looking for toilets for the rest of the day.

Then I had to go to my lawyer's and because I did not manage to get a lift from Dad in the morning, I did not get the cheque that he wrote out for me. I had to withdraw money from an ATM. Guess what? There are no UOB or OCBC atm-s at The Central!!! Usually where they is at least one UOB at the MRT stations, there was none at the Clarke Quay station. I had to walk two traffic lights away to People's Park to get my money. It was torturous considering that I had blisters on my feet and swollen ones at that!

I managed to do it though; draw money and get back to the area near The Central. The papers will be filed tomorrow and I would soon be on my way to freedom. Hopefully everything will turn out fine.