I must admit I used to feel very pissed when I see a whole table reserved using tissue papers, and feel like collecting all of them, and maybe sell them for $1 per 3 packets.
But now I realized this actually becomes a very unique culture in Singapore. Everyone seems to see this as a norm and don't seem to mind at all. There's generallly not many incidents of singaporeans occupying seats reserved by others using tissue papers.
But I have personally encountered/witnessed three incidents where "reserved" seats were taken by others. Two of these incidents happened to me.
1. I was in a crowded food court, and spotted a 2-seater table. There were used utensils on that table. So I shifted the utensils to one side of the table, and put my bag on the chair nearer to the clean side of the table. I proceeded to buy my food. On my way back, I saw one caucasion attempting to sit at the chair (with my bag on it). He saw the bag and immediately went to sit on the other chair, and pushed the utensils to my side of the table. When I return, he gave me the "I-din-sit-on-your-chair-what" look.
The cleaner auntie what happened, and quickly said "come here got table" and quickly cleaned another table for me. So nice.
2. Went for lunch at Ikea with a 3 other colleagues. Me and 1 colleague went to Q for food first. Think my other two colleagues decided not to wait, and went to join the Q too. When I return, I realized our table was taken by a caucasion family. So I asked my colleague what she used to reserve the table. She said she left her sweater on one of the chairs. I went closer to see where the sweater was. The caucasion lady gave me that "we-only-occupied-the-other-3-chairs-wha
t" look.
Again, the cleaner uncle saw what happened, and helped us look for another table. When there was a table, he quickly signalled another cleaner auntie to help clear the table fast so that we can sit. So nice.
3. This incident happened to another table. This guy reserved a table with his water bottle. Shortly after, a caucasian came with his food, shove the water bottle to the side and sat down with his fren. Needless to say, when the guy returned with his food, he was angry. But he only took back his water bottle and looked for another table.
Please note that this is not a caucasion bashing post. I don't really blame them because like I said, this reservation of seats thingy seem to be very unique to Singapore. So they may not understand how this works. I can't remember, but I don't think in the western countries, people actually reserve seats before buying food right? Maybe it doesn't happen there cos there's no such things as food courts!
Before I forget, kudos to the cleaner aunties/uncles in food courts!
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
elementz's journal
cold
