I miss the culture

Sometimes I get really frustrated with some people! Most of the time strangers.

There was this incident the other night while I was leaving FF at MML:

I always try my very best to hold doors for others. British culture. That really got into me after just two years of being in England. Anyways, some of these gym entrance doors are really heavy and if you happen to be trailing someone and this someone does not hold up the door for you, the door might smash your face and break your nose. Okay, exaggerated. Of course you can defend yourself by blocking the door from attacking you. But the point was, it's courteous to hold doors for others regardless who they are. So, as I was saying, this one night, even though tired and really want to get home quickly, I held the gym door for someone who was approaching the door. And it was a guy. Never mind who actually. But, instead of hasten his step and come "take over" the door handle, AND say thank you, he just walked passed through the door in his most kingly manner. Geezz... I didn't know THE king went to the same gym as me. And since it was his divine right and my honour to hold the door for him, he didn't even say thank you.


Many of those days while I was queueing up in the public toilet:

What queueing up? So far only at public toilets at The Gardens that I've experience queueing "system" which was similar to the British practice - they normally form a line and wait for their turn to use whichever cubicle that's available. Here, most of the time people will just pick and choose one of the cubicles and stand in front of that door. So it's like your luck if the cubicle you queue up for is vacant first. Never mind the other people who had been queueing up way before you. Humph... And those toilets in England (speaking of those I visited only, not sure about all other parts of England, and do I start to sound like a snob?) are dry, not smelly and had toilet papers provided. No pressure at all using public toilets over there. Over here, I sometimes had to roll up my long pants, must remember to bring tissue and not to mention getting "surprises" inside the toilet from time to time. Yeuwww...

The meaning of pedestrian crossing:

There is this pedestrian path in front of and between The Curve and Ikano. Some cars will just speed up, despite the 3 humps and elevated pedestrian walk way just to AVOID letting the pedestrian cross. Geezz... For this fact, forget about cars letting any other cars cross or overtake them.

There are also other things in England that I miss...

During winter, we wear many layers of clothes so when it comes to fitting, I am most of the time very lazy. So I will normally just get my size - the sizes there are standard, size 10 will always be size 10 unlike here (or some other parts of the world) I sometimes wear size s and a large might be too small for me sometimes - without fitting, and if I don't like it (them) I'll just bring back to the store for refund. So long as you have your receipts in order and goods in original condition, they never refuse to refund. They don't even ask you why most of the time.

Marks and Spencer over there is a very affordable brand. I normally go for their sandwiches and trifles. And weren't there at least like 20 different types of sandwiches in that section? I also normally got really carried away when I shop for my dessert. I remember 1.99 pounds for a huge tub of trifle. My favorite. Yummy.

Let's see, what else? Thick cut potato chips (wedges) with salt and vinegar. Heavily soaked in vinegar. Take away, eat while you walk on the cold winter street.

My single scope cone of Baskin Robins for only 99p (about RM4 that many years ago...). Also eat while I walk not in a hot summer day, but during winter! The ice cream will not melt away and I would not need to struggle to keep the ice cream "at bay" by licking frantically around the cone.

Those were college days... It will definitely be different for me if I were to live there now. Having said all those, I do really really love living in Malaysia. Just got frustrated with some "mishaps" at times.

Hey, late night shopping over in England was till 8.00pm; long bean is a premium item in the supermarket; I could only find Maggi Mee in China Town; I had to bring in my own soya sauce; there was no mamak stalls to hang out...