New Straits Times – Rude Awakening

And guess what, that is not the only cinema sin we are guilty of. Okay, here goes:

2) Do not talk on the phone.
3) Do not kick the seat in front of you.
4) Do not fidget, the chairs are interconnected and other people can feel you moving about. It is utterly disrespectful to put your legs on the head rest in front of you  didn’t your parents teach you how to sit properly?
5) Do not reply to the actors’ dialogue on screen, they were paid to act, not you. Do not give running commentaries about the movie  the rest of us are really not that interested in your opinion.
6) And please train your children not to ask: “Mummy, Mummy, what’s that?” about every other scene.
7) Do not bring in babies, they will only be terrified by the noise and gigantic picture. Please, think about your children, not just yourself. Babies won’t be able to appreciate Narnia even if the film is meant to be children-friendly.
Do not eat food with a strong smell. And if you sneeze or cough, close your mouth. That feeling of wet air behind the neck when someone behind you just sneezed on your head is just gross!

FREE HEELYS
When a child wheels into you in a shopping centre with his or her Heelys, irritated is just not enough a word to describe it. Because there you are, minding your own business when suddenly an unknown child crashes into you without so much as a sorry.People can be understanding if bumping is accidental (and be polite enough to apologise, please), but children with wheeling shoes in the middle of a busy mall will surely bump into someone.And have parents even thought what might happen should the child crash into an elderly or handicapped person? Someone could get hurt, you know. The tiles may also be slippery, so these children put themselves in danger when they put on those shoes for shopping.Besides, shopping malls are not playgrounds. Just because you don’t have the time to take them to the playing fields doesn’t mean you can take them to play in malls.And please, don’t use “children being children” as an excuse.

ELEVATOR 101
There is a reason why there are two arrows on elevator doors, one pointing up and the other pointing down. You go down when the down arrow light goes off, and vice versa.But some people have taken into riding the elevator up when they want to go down. Why? They are afraid that the elevator will be full picking up passengers from upper floors that there will be no more space for them.The result? People who actually want to go up cannot go because the elevator is crowded by those going down. People, use the escalators.Elevators are meant firstly for the disabled, the elderly, children in their prams and people with trolleys, so the rest of the crowd should be considerate and make way for them to go inside first, not jostle with them.How would you like it if you had just met with an accident, your leg still in a cast and people pushing you around?

LOVE IS IN THE AIR
One of the irritating things that Joe Public seems to like doing is walking slowly in the mall with Jane Public. Hand-in-hand. Or sometimes with arms around each other’s waist. Aside from the rather in-your-face public display of affection, they block the passageways.Sometimes to make matters worse, they are there with another couple… and all are holding on to each other abreast. Thus blocking off the entire passageway.Many a time, such a couple and their friends stop right at the top (or bottom) of an escalator… to discuss where to go next. The rest of us have to brake suddenly just to avoid crashing into them.

SHOPPING MANNERS
An annoying practice is taking a “million” outfits into the changing room… despite the sign limiting the number of outfits a shopper can try on at any one time. They happily take these clothes into the changing room and conduct little fashion shows for their friends waiting right outside the changing room. Never mind that the line of irate women waiting to try on outfits is growing by the minute.

A typical kiasu Malaysian – we can find loads of them these days.

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