I am the secret that you keep; MISS SCARLET.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

irony of library patrons

i just came home from a relaxing "me time" at jurong regional library, where i got to partially successfully indulge in a good book, which i haven't, in eons.

why partial?

because it irks me to see basic social responsibility and etiquette not being carried out by supposed civilised homo sapiens (i hope that's how you spell it!).

let's brush aside irresponsible parents, and noisy brats or even secondary school kids who have learnt nothing about public conduct during their primary school years.

no, let's focus on the elderly. when we say "elderly", we think about slow, quiet and fairly behaved individuals who would prefer peace and quiet in such a place like a library. they engross themselves in books and magazines and on ocassion, doze off in the comfortable, cooling air-conditioned atmosphere.

today, that was SOOOO not the case. pardon my use of local terms from here on, but it'll make this description far more... how should i say... accurate of my pent up frustrations.

so i found a comfortable chair in the "quiet reading room" (which i find, already quite ironic, since a library is supposed to be generally quiet in the first place!) and settled down into my book. the first 2 hours were good. i whizzed past several chapters with ease, and then all of a sudden...

this AH PEK strutted into the room and shouted to his friend on the other side, in chinese (sorry for the ignorance of what dialect he was speaking in, so i'll generalise it). as if that wasn't annoying enough, he sat down beside his (also) AH PEK friend, and started making small talk. although there was nothing SMALL about the volume of the voice he was speaking in! and not one person in that room looked bothered by it at all!

this went on for about 10 minutes, then things went quiet once more. i was pleased, and carried on with my book. time passed and i ended up closing my eyes, only to be awaken by security(!!!). 10 minutes after that stoopid PAKCIK annoyed me to bits, the two AH PEKS shifted to more comfortable seats in the room (there are benches, and then there are also individual sofa chairs. so they moved to 2 available sofa chairs). once again, the AH PEK that strutted into the room, raised his voice to talk to his AH PEK companion, and then they started laughing and sharing (what's meant to be) amusing photographs in magazines.

i tried squinting my eyes to check out what magazine they were reading, that was so funny... and it was some magazine meant for pregnant mothers/mothers who just had their newborns! that got me curious, so i sneaked a peek at what exactly their pile of magazines consisted of. they were women's magazines, and the most ridiculous one i spotted was "pengantin" (meaning bride in malay). -_-

what one of them did next was utterly gross and pervertic to me (at least). the AH PEK who was so boisterous when he came through the door, started taking photos of sexily-clad women in the magazines! and how do i know?

because he was rude enough not to put his handphone in silent mode, and every push of a button gave off a loud beeping sound! plus, that camera "click" sound went off several times too. i found myself utterly disgusted and didn't stay around much longer after that. the noise and 'visual distraction' made me lose interest completely.

what i'm trying to say is, some people should be stripped of the title "civilian" because they are farrrr away from being civil. i know it's a small issue to get hyped up about, but if you have to set up QUIET READING ROOMS in LIBRARIES, doesn't that spell I-R-O-N-Y to you?

and yet, people are so effing oblivious to how libraries are meant to function.

tsk tsk tsk. it seems Mother Nature is not the only one who needs saving; so does humanity.

on a happier note, congratulations on being promoted, Sergeant Yasin. :)
my baby's made me proud.