It has been a dismally cold and wet day. I’ve allowed the unwelcoming weather to turn my mood from yesterday’s bright and chirpy TGIF sentiment. TGIF, a few years ago I didn’t know what it meant. Friends were exclaiming TGIF every Friday. It’s somewhat celebratory I suppose. It carries the message of pride, job satisfaction, with fun just around the corner. We have worked hard all week, and Thank God, It’s Friday. Let’s reap our reward, get paid, get laid hopefully, and party all weekend. Let the weekend begin, be gin! I was ignorant of such sentiments. Having worked in retail shops for way too long, I had forgotten a weekend is different from a weekday. Every day was another working day. How did that happen? Life passed by and twenty two years later, every day was still just another working day. Looking back at my life now, I can see the shopping malls sucking the life out of my body. What’s left is a shrivelled shell of a once gregarious, confident and ambitious young man. In retail, the shopkeeper sees the magnified ugliness of urghhlings. It’s not uncommon for customers to buy an item, use it and then return it for a refund. They treat shops like a library. ” I am sorry, we don’t offer refunds simply because you’ve changed your mind”. So, they’ll return later after deliberately breaking the product. “I demand a refund, you sold me a faulty product”. It’s also not uncommon for the shopkeeper to be overwhelmed by a family of thieves. The mother with a pram, a perfect vehicle to hide stolen goods, would direct her children to fan out to all corners of the shop. The shopkeeper understands he’s the wounded gazelle, being attacked by a gang of hyenas. It’s inevitable before they rip him to pieces. Fellow earthlings, no, urghhlings, egregiously grievous to his faith in humanity. My long years spent in retail shops in shopping centres felt like a life sentence, the ugliness of urghhlings was contagious. I became a reliable witness against them, their dishonest and devious behaviour unfolding from across the shop counter. I longed to be freed. It took the 2008 Global Financial Crisis to unchain me from my prison. Fate, it has a cheeky twist to it.
A friend wisely advised me to embrace the cold, it’s better than the 45.9 C being experienced in Paris. A wise friend, she often imparts positive thoughts. She’s the annoying type though, she sees the cup is half full, not half empty. It doesn’t matter to her even if she paid for a full cup. There is simply no negatives in life if we focus on the positives. But, I just can’t forget the urghhlings in the shop….
Urghhlings 