19 November 2008

Stupid is as Stupid Does

My Dad taught me: Judge People By What They Do, NOT By How They Appear.
The Royal Highness is here. Day 3 and I'm waiting impatiently for her to just go back to where She rightly belongs. Thank God she's going back tomorrow.
As mentioned in Part 1, she shall be bunking in my room during her stay here. Yes, she is bunking there right now and that is not all. She butts into every single conversation I have with my Dad, even though it does not concern her, and starts giving her two cents worth of every single thing. It's really annoying how condescending some people can be, thinking they know every damn bit of every damn bit of everything. It's irritating but there's nothing I can do cos she is Dad's beloved sister.
Scene 1: Mum asked me to heat up the pastry for her using the toaster (note that it is like the kind we use to make cheese on toast or the one for dry cooking under high heat). the Royal Highness was sitting on there and said, "Oh, why do you need a microwave as well as a toaster? After all, the microwave can do the job of a toaster."

Scene 2: The technician came to service the gate's mechanism. The Royal Highness said in the car, "That is the problem with auto gates. Very high maintenance and it costs money. What a waste of money to install this thing. It is a liability, just like air-cons, you know." "You gotta maintain an air-con too. It is not a one-off thing of installing it and done. You gotta ask people to service it and refill the gas too," she continued, as if none of us know anything about air-cons.
Scene 3: She asked me to help her check AirAsia airfare for this weekend to go back to where she belong. "I saw in the Borneo Post, the fare is RM0.99." The Royal Highness said.
"Did you check the travel period?" my sis asked.
"Ya, I doubt you can get RM0.99 airfare for this weekend. AirAsia's yield management does not work like FSCs. Anyway it's already the school holidays. Peak period." I said.
"No lah, school holidays aren't considered peak periods. Only festive seasons. Only hotels raise the price during peak periods, not airlines," The Royal Highness retorted.
"Oh yeah, so much for doing an assignment about managing capacity and demand." I told my Dad.
I'm online in my bedroom now (rightfully her room at the moment), in front of the laptop. My study table has turned into a mess and I suspect she has been messing around with my stuff cos it is in a different position now. Thank goodness there's nothing much on the table except for my study notes and my 2007 organizer. The Royal Highness just came back from her trip to Boulevard with her friends. And she had the guts to invite her friends into the house and brought them round the house, as if it was her own house. Luckily I was playing with Brandy just now so I escaped from her but poor Mum, who was in the midst of doing her work, was disturbed by them. She came into her room. "Oh, you are here. I want to change," she said. I refused to budge and started mumbling to myself. Yeah, I know I'm rude but this is what she gets for saying that I was blind yesterday.
Scene 4: Dad was asking me to check something online. "You know how to check or not? You know some websites cannot be trusted?" The Royal Highness butted in, as if I am some kind of imbecile.
Scene 5: The Royal Highness saw the Just Follow Law DVD lying on the table and insisted of watching. "Your DVD player can play or not? Only good brands like Sony can play all sorts of DVDs, you know," she said.
The DVD player at home is an LG. Mum said that it would not "pick disc". The Royal Highness continues on, "LG not as good as Sony. Our VCD player at home is a Sony. Why buy DVD? VCD is cheaper. Only RM5. DVD in Sibu is RM8."
Scene 6: My cousin called my phone. God knows who gave her my number. I was upstairs at that time so when I got down, I saw a miss call and an sms asking The Royal Highness's sister to call her back. I made a mistake by passing the message to The Royal Highness's sister. She does not have a handphone and refuses to get one though she can well afford it as she's a government school teacher who works as a tuition school teacher during the weekends (moonlighting). So she asked me to lend my phone to her. Fine. She called my cousin and spoke for 5 minutes, thus burning my credit away by chit chatting asking my cousin whether she has eaten, is she working today, and all sorts of unimportant stuff. I sulked. I complained to my Dad who said just let it be.
"WHAT IS THIS? I reload my phone with my own hard earn money and you are asking me to just let her use it? She is worst than a leech." I exclaimed.
I went down and retrieved my laptop. Thank Goodness she hung off. "Oh Thank you. I didn't use much, isn't it? After all, yours is postpaid." she said.
I gave her an incredulous look, "My phone is a prepaid and I reload it with my own hard earn money. I do not leech off people." I said and walked off. I looked at my balance. She used up RM1. RM1 used to talk rubbish. Not even I call my friends and waste RM1.
Yes, both of them are leeches and Dad hates it when I call them leeches. They deserve that name anyways.
Reminder to self: I will be on holiday with her. Remember to reject my cousin's call. I am not fond of being victim of leeches.
Scene 7: There are two dogs at home and The Royal Highness was saying that we are being stupid and spendthrift to rear two dogs. "Ha, you are going to send your dog for vaccination. Haiya, see. I said earlier on that taking care of dogs are time consuming. Why are you wasting money on this kind on unnecessary things like vaccinations? Dogs can leave for a long time, even without vaccination. Remember the dog in Sibu, it was with us for a long time. For 12 years. Never had to go for vaccination."
I know that the Bible is imbued with its teachings, everything from an eye for an eye, to love your enemies, to love your neighbor as yourself.

I know that the Bible instructs us to forgive as the Lord forgave us:

    Colossians 3:13
    Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
    Matthew 18:21-22
    Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
But forgiveness does not come easy for me. My natural instinct is to recoil in self-protection when I've been injured. I am one person who doesn't naturally overflow with mercy, grace and forgiveness when we've been wronged. Yeah, I got a lot of things to learn. One thing for sure is continue forgiving until the matter is settled in the heart.
Back to one of the Ten Commandments, I think the concept of loving your neighbour includes our non-human animal brothers and sisters. Not that I am an animal lover, but I am not an animal-hater either though I might scold Bobby at times for misbehaving. I'm just indifferent towards animals but I got to play my part to take care of Brandy. Even if the Bible does not explicitly include animals in the notion of one's neighbour, there is enough in the substance of biblical teachings and scattered passages to invite such a reading and the implementation of this reading into our daily lives and protective laws, isn't it? Is there anything wrong keeping dogs?

"Stupid is as Stupid Does" -Forrest Gump-

That's how I perceive The Royal Highness to be. Stupidity is a matter of deeds, Not looks.

Oh yeah, I'm BAD.

1 comment:

kEiTh said...

Hi KJ,

Seem your 5 days of Royal Highness' stay over is such a torturing for you. Haha. I can see she could a person who is rather annoying, no offense but yeah, she is a nuisance! Be patient, 5days will be a short; I admit your patience may be tested to its limit in these 5days, but, never mind, if could just be another test for you to nurture to become a better person. God bless!

cHeErS,
keithK :)