Warning: This is going to be a super long entry. Today just isn’t the best of days…I woke up this morning to the sounds of my parents raising their voices to each other. What were they upset about? From what I gathered, mum was her usual self angry over the little stains on the stove, that the food processor’s not kept and MAYBE she accused dad of dirtying the stove…who knows? It’s pure speculation right now. This was sparked off by dad saying that Aunite Fatimah laughed at us for having so many dirty mugs in our sink. Dad retaliated to mum’s raised voice by saying (or should I use shout?) that he washes the dishes every morning and we don’t wash any (which is of course utter rubbish sometimes, and I must say that I detected a slight resentment frm him…but it may be my imagination).
You know what our problem is? Mum thinks that each of us have been “assigned” hsework to do (which isn’t true) and that we ought to take the initiative to do more whenever we see fit, especially since this is our home. True….Dad on the other hand (including myself) wants some acknowledgement and thanks whenever housework is done on a regular basis…since dishes and clothes don’t get washed automatically. Dad also wants to split all his current chores to make it that ALL of us do it together so that it gets done fast. However, he neglects other tasks (like washing clothes, washing the toilets, mopping the floor) and I wonder how he would react if we ask him to share these chores as well. *sigh* we’re not listening to each other. I remember him telling me last year that we shouldn’t complain about doing the housework and here he is not doing much housework and asking me to do it for him. I’m sick and tired of everyone asking ME to do things around the house. Mum refuses to ask Dad cos she says that he’s hopeless…she doesn’t really like asking Gor either. Gor will ask me to do certain things too ‘cos I’m his younger sister.
I’m not complaining about doing housework…I don’t mind doing some at my own time and pace. What unnerves me is that whenever I do something, it’s not that it’s not acknowledgement…I get criticisms sometimes. After mopping the floor, I got comments like: Why so wet? The floor’s still sticky. Next time don’t write calligraphy on the floor while mopping. I know that the last statement was half said in jest. But it’s still not nice. Nobody else can be bothered to mop/vacuum the house. The role fell to me because one day I got sick and tired of walking around with black soles and therefore cleaned the house on a regular basis. I’m sure the same thing goes with dad and the pile of clothes to be folded. I must say that dad’s folding has improved. It still sucks…but it has improved. At least I don’t need to refold my T-shirts and shorts..haha.
You know what’s our solution to this problem? A maid. Oh, to be politically correct, I ought to say a domestic helper. Yeah…she’ll really help us domestically. However, we don’t have the moolah to have a maid. If we have a maid, I can predict that I will have deja vu scenes of mum scolding the maid and complaining to us about the maid being lazy. What a lark. A better solution to this problem would be that we just stop getting irritated over minute details and speak to each other nicely. I’m trying very hard to do so but it’s difficult to combat learned behaviour. If we want something done, it’s best to say what we want done exactly and it doesn’t hurt to say please. Yes, this is our home but we all want some thanks and pleases too, right? Furthermore, it’s emotional blackmail whenever one is accused of not being houseproud just because a chair’s not tucked in or a mug was left on the table.
Now now, before you jump to conclusions and say that I shouldn’t be writing all these things to be read by strangers/friends because it’s rude…I must add that these things do happen in one form or another to other people. Analyse…it may not be housework. It may come in other forms. We lack effective communication. Communication is more than just talking and talking….animals communicate better than us although they don’t have words. Sometimes I wished that I was an animal…all I would have to worry on a day-to-day basis are food, shelter and making babies *wink*!
Anyway, another thing that happened today was that I met with an irritating taxi driver. I told him to take the AYE and exit at Clementi Road. I don’t memorise Exit nos. and then he asked me at the Buona Vista Road exit, “It’s not this one right? Straight on right?” I replied yes. Further on, he then asked, “Clementi Road is it? Exit 6?” I replied yes because I remembered that the next one would be the clementi rd exit and I assumed that it would be 6. Bad mistake. He slowed down and I thought he was going to turn left at the exit, especially since there was some road works going on. But NO…he drove on! I said, “Uncle…it’s that exit!” Do you know what he then said? He said, “I slowed down waiting for you to say whether it’s that exit because you said NUS. But then you said exit 6. That was exit 9.” I was starting to fume. And then he continued driving along the road and him being a taxi driver, and armed with the knowledge that the correct exit was just behind, should have gone out at the next exit. But I saw that he had no such intention and I had to tell him to do so…if not I may be taken for another ride. Thank goodness I know my way around this area and I led him back to NUS. He’s a twat. Any decent taxi driver ought to know how to get back to where I left off….he’s such a twat. And because of him, I had to spend another dollar more on cab fare.
Today’s lecture was another testament to lecturers who talk pointlessly in class. Such a waste of time. And she has developed a habit of adding Japanese phrases during her lecture. She’s not a Japanese btw. She’s a japanese studies lecturer and her interest is in Japanese film and literature…and she speaks Japanese…but she’s NOT Japanese and 97% of her students are NOT Japanese. When I was taught 2 yrs ago by her, she didn’t sprinkle Japanese words into her vocab. Now, she’s like blah blah blah deshyo? Owari….blah blah blah deshyo? Chotto wannabe…..deshyo? The highlight of the day was meeting Siew Mai and having a small bitching session…the stupid thing was that I forgot to bring her anime CDs…hee…
I feel exhausted…more so emotionally than physically. It seems as if I’ve got loads to do but then I also think that I’m overestimating my tasks. I want to do nothing more than stone in front of a screen watching anime, Chinese/Japanese dramas and movies. Ii deshyo? Hahaha…I did that on purpose.
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