Tissue paper and MRT seats

I went downtown yesterday. I wanted to visit the JNTO at Hong Leong Bldg to pick up maps and brochures on Japan. Picked up Cait from school with Owain in tow and we took the MRT to Raffles Place. My kids must have been the only kids on the streets in a 1-km radius! We certainly stuck out like sore thumbs.

Shenton Way was full of harried-looking execs criss-crossing paths and looking like they had to be somewhere else 10 minutes ago. Cait picked up on the hurry-burry vibe and asked me: Mum how come everyone is in such a hurry?

Since we were on Paul's doorstep, we gave him a call and had a drink with him and his colleague at Lau Pa Sat. I hadn't been here in years. The place bore little resemblance to what I remember of it - a spacious, airy place with great-tasting dark Hokkien mee. My late grandfather used to bring his family here and I remember coming here with mum and dad and the aunties and uncles for an old-fashioned hearty meal. Today, aside from the beautiful Victorian-age wrought iron pillars and rafters, the roof etc, Lau Pa Sat resembles nothing more than a giant office foodcourt-canteen! So many stalls selling the usual blah foodcourt fare, tiny tables squashed near cheek by jowl. Thronged with office-workers looking homogenous and colourless in black, grey, blue, whites. Everyone seemed to look like a carbon copy of the other.

And on table after table sat packets of tissue paper!! The well-known tissue-paper phenomenon. Honestly while I'd heard of this, I had never actually seen this - until yesterday. It was like some unspoken code of understanding that whenever someone left a packet on the table, it meant it was 'occupied' while the occupants went in search of food. This kind of system is surely open to dispute, I asked Paul. Yes, he said, only when the ang-mohs, the Indian and Chinese nationals, who are not aware of this 'system' plonk themselves on occupied territory. Nasty exchanges have been known to happen when the owners of the packet of tissue paper return to find their places usurped. I wish I could have seen one!

Why can't people just get their food, come back and scan for the nearest available seat? Or if in a group, why must all go in search of food together? Surely one person can wait at the table until someone from the party returns?

I don't know... I never do this. I just leave my children to 'guard' the table - why depend on an inanimate plastic rectangle when I have got living breathing kids who can sit there, 'chope' our spots. Except that, of course, those very same children have been known to run off for various reasons leaving the seats wide open. Or, as in Isaac's case, stare wide-eyed, tongue-tied when people ask: is this seat taken?

Speaking of seats, on the way back home on the MRT, the kids and I managed to get a seat. So there I was sitting next to the door, Owain perched on my lap with a thick wad of papers and brochures and my handbag squashed between me and Cait. By the time the train reached City Hall station, all the seats were occupied.

A heavily pregnant lady came on board. She stood near the centre pole. The lady sitting across from me was busy SMSing - so initially, I thought she didn't see the preggie woman. Incidentally, I noticed that the preggie lady was carrying the baby very low. At that kind of belly size, carrying that low, it must be a strain on the pelvic ligaments and at some point, will pinch and hurt.

Preggie woman continued standing. I was in two minds - stand or don't stand? I had sleepy Owain, a heavy bag and a thick wad of papers to grapple with. I felt I should stand but I also needed the seat. I glared at the lady sitting across from me, who had by now stopped SMSing, seen the preggie woman but still didn't move her butt. The yellow sign asking people to give up their seats for someone who needed it more hung directly above her head. I stared pointedly at her, shifted my glance to the preggie lady and back. She met my stare. But did not get up.

Finally I told Owain: let's stand for this lady here so that she can sit okay? And we shuffled up from our seat. Preggie lady took the seat gratefully as I motioned to Cait to stay put in her seat. The Aussie family next to us saw everything and stood up saying that they were getting off anyway, so Owain and I could sit down.

As for that woman sitting across from me, well, she wasn't the only one. There were other women sitting there as well. You would have thought that women would have more compassion for other fellow women? Hah! So much for 20 over years of the courtesy campaign, the singapore kindness movement etc. And imagine this kind of mindset in a population of 6.5million!