Everything...in moderation...

An old friend from secondary school has been visiting this week, so its been a little bit of tourism...my feet hurts. They have been such great guests. Cooking, cleaning and taking care of me. Its been quite refreshing. I will miss them when they leave. I really do enjoy having a fellowship of women. It is very nice. The energy is all sweet and calm. I encourage all women to hang out with their friends and sisters. I am a bit spoiled though, cos I have two sisters, so for me, its familiar territory and one that I am used to. Plus, I went to boarding school.

Anyway, its been a fun time. They are my first real guests here and I am so glad anybody would think of visiting me. It makes me all warm inside. I am always the one visiting people. Nobody ever says "you know, waffy, I 'd like to visit you". I am always the one making an effort, so this has been quite pleasant, actually. As everybody knows, I am a bit of a loner, so its not like I really want people to be here all the time, but once in a while is good.

Something funny that happened: Well, my two guests are two extremely polite and thoughtful people. Anytime they have to do anything, its always a struggle who should do it cos they both want to help and they both want to be the one that serves. By the way, I am not talking only about them wanting to be polite to me, but it was mostly them wanting to be polite to themselves as well, and helping each other. Take a simple task like carrying a shopping bag which they had both put their stuff in...

Guest 1: Please, please, let me carry it.
Guest 2: No, no, I want to carry it, let me carry it.
Guest 1: But please, let me carry it, I want to carry it.
Guest 2: But you said your feet hurt, let me carry it.

I promise you that I observed countless scenes like these this week. While this is all very sweet, I saw immediately that this was quite inefficient in getting things done. As tourists, they were terribly at a disadvantage cos it meant there were many scenes like this:

"What would you like to do? I remember you saying you wanted to see the castle".
"But you wanted to see the city hall, lets go do that"
"But I know you talked about the castle"
"Lets do what you want to do"
"No, I would really like to go and see yours"

Now, you get my drift...for tourism, its the worst way to be...

Take the simple task of walking fast to get the bus. If one of them was tired, then the other did not want to insist that she walks fast, cos she is so considerate. Then they miss the bus, then they miss the planned excursion, etc etc.

I personally took control of the schedule today because yesterday I noticed that things were not getting done. I was brisk and thorough. No dilly dallying here. You have things to do.

Anyway, as nicely as I could, I pointed this out to them today. I told them that I really think its sweet that they are so considerate of each other's feelings, but the truth is, it does not work when two people that needs to get things done are indecisive. I suggested that one might need to become "mean". And in their world, thats simply someone that would decide after only asking what everybody thought, ONCE.

I gave them my principle in life: Anything in moderation is pretty much okay.

Its good to be polite, but in moderation. Otherwise, it just turns to inefficiency.

Now, they laughed when I said this. And what has happened now? One of the bags full of their tourist stuff is missing. I remember them having one of those scenes of "let me carry it", "no, let me carry it", "pls let me carry it" etc etc. They went on for a few minutes, and I remember asking "should I decide"? Everybody laughed but now, it is gone. They both can't remember who carried it, since they had so many scenes of such...with different bags.

Of course I sympathized but I hope they have learnt their lesseons.

Have a great weekend guys!