Instant Karma

Now earlier on, I thought I could use a snack or something. So I popped into the 7-11, and got myself a bag of Twisties (a 30 something man eating Twisties? Don’t ask.) I saw that they had marked down the Twisties, so I went to pay at the counter. But they charged me full price. I protested to the cashier who was serving me but she was the more junior one, so she deferred to the other guy, who was still handling another customer. When he was done, I brought the senior guy to the shelf to show him the mark down price tag. Then he said, hold on, and made a call. When I was tapping my foot in annoyance, the guy who he was talking to came by (must have been passing by anyway) and they conferred for a little while, until he found out that the mark down price came with dates, it ceased to be effective yesterday. So no mark down. So, you want a bag for that? He asked. Feeling a little miserly, I said, give me back my money. The junior cashier gave me a dirty look.

Well I found another markdown on Orangina, which is my favourite drink, but I have no idea why they price the damn thing so high, and I almost never buy it unless it’s on markdown. So I took the can and gulped it down.

The bus came soon after, and then I boarded it and sat down. You wouldn’t normally think of watching your manners all the time, like on the 145, going through the Chinatown section, and normally it’s full of haggard senior citizens where I can be extremely complacent about my etiquette. I felt a belch coming up and let it rip at full volume. It was one of the performances that I could be most proud of. The whole bus could hear it. (It was a single decker: I still don’t have the kungfu to belch so loud a whole double decker can hear it.) Immodestly, I rubbed my belly, and continued to read a book I picked up from the library - history of Russia.

Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw somebody waving hi. I didn’t recognise her at first, but later on found out that she was a former colleague from the company, a friend of MY’s. I was like... shit. I belched after St Andrew’s Cathedral, which means she must have heard it! Damn. But of course that didn’t stop me from having a proper conversation with her. I’m sure she must be thinking I’m such a boar. (With familiar people, it’s OK because they know I’m a boar. With casual acquaintances, it’s pretty embarrassing.)

So how does that relate? I think that if I wasn’t so stingy to balk on paying the $$$ for the twisties, I wouldn’t have taken the Orangina and belched out loud in public. But of course, reading my big tome on Russian history on one hand and gracelessly pouring the bag down the hatch (I’m not above doing that if I don’t think I’m watched) is also slightly off putting.