Getting Annoyed

Yesterday afternoon after school, I hitched a ride to town in a colleague's car. He dropped me at a restaurant. I thanked him for the lift and entered the eatery. I ordered a plate of barbecued pork rice.I had not taken it for months due to health reasons.I chose to dine in the tarped area outside the restaurant.

While enjoying the savory succulence of the meat, I kept hearing a buzz of voices behind me. I turned round and saw three girls two tables away from me. They were puffing away on cigarettes while prattling on trivialities in Mandarin.Their faces were caked with thick makeup(which smudged in hot weather)and their clothes fashionable and scanty.Wisps of smoke were uncoiling from their glossy,lipsticked mouths. I don't like smokers and the sight of them disgusted me.I turned back and went on eating.

After eating and footing the bill, I rose and strapped on my knapsack. I walked in the direction of the bus station past the three chattering girls. I halted in my tracks when a sharp voice boomed behind me: "Hey, that knapsack-carrying man kept stealing a look at me!" I looked over my shoulder and saw one of the three girls gesturing at me. She retracted her finger immediately when she realized that I was looking at her. She talked about me as though I were a lecherous man. I would never be interested in such a girl. I like intellectual ones, not someone as tacky as she is.

The girl blushed and bent her head low. Her two friends were stifling their giggle. I shot them a glare and continued walking. I was still angry when I was on my way home on a bus. Who did they think I was? I am sure girls like them always exchange ribald jokes among themselves.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creative Writing Workshop

Image
I attended a creative writing workshop in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah last Saturday. It was organized by Jude Day, president of Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu Sabah(SPARKS), The invited speaker was Robert Raymer, a Sarawak-based American writer who is a lecturer of creative writing at Universiti Sarawak Malaysia. He is the author of 'Lovers and Strangers Revisited', 'Tropical Affairs', 'The Boy Who Shot Santa' and 'Spirit of Malaysia'. It only took me ten minutes to get to Wisma Anglican, the workshop venue from my hotel on shanks's pony. I felt honored to have met Mr. Robert Raymer in person.He exuded a quiet air of confidence and patience. I bought a copy of his 'Lovers and Strangers Revisited' and got it autographed by him. I was thrilled and could not help smiling from ear to ear. I picked up a lot of knowledge during the workshop. First, Robert Raymer expounded the essence of creative writing.Next, he showed us how to organiz...
Read more

Article on My Art Lessons

Image
The title is originally 'A Realisation As An Overaged Art Student' but it was changed to something cringeworthy. Many young children between the ages of six to fifteen hunched over the tables in the sitting room, sketching and painting.   At the age of forty-five, I was by far the oldest student, overweight, too, and somewhat shabby looking.   Sitting in an inconspicuous corner, under a freezing air conditioner, I surfed the Inter­net on my ipad to hide my discomfort. One by one, more kids poked their heads around the door, entered the house barefoot and took their seemingly pre-assigned positions in the sitting room. When Vaz, the elegant art teacher in her late fifties arrived, she frowned at where I was sitting. “This is not where you sit,” said the lecturer cum artist, while beckoning me to follow her into a little room beside her office.   She handed me a beginner kit and frowned again when I told her that I had forgotten to bring my coloured penc...
Read more

My Life as a Boarder at St. Patrick's

The first time I came to Kuching was in 1990. Failing to secure a place in government schools after the SPM, I enrolled in the sixth  form  at the now defunct school on Stampin Road, St. Patrick's. It was my first time away from the comfort of home, and I was staying in the school ’s  wooden boarding house, naturally fe eling  emotionally challenged. In the first few months of my stay, I was wrought with unmitigated homesickness, which sapped my confidence, energy, and optimism for life. My weight plunged, and it took a toll on my health. One time, I was so delirious with fever that the world was almost dead to me. My fellow boarders took turns looking after me, bringing me food, sponging my feverish forehead, and washing my sweat-soiled clothes. I finally came to my senses when a boy named Simon  warned me that if I continued letting my emotions control me, I would disappoint my parents. Like me, he had come all the way from Miri to study. He...
Read more