Mini-Stops, I have had enough of you. Many encounters, a few pleasant and quite a few unpleasant. This branch years ago when I was new on the job, gave me 50 centavos extra change. It perplexed me why the extra change, was there a promo? I felt guilty but nowhere could I find a priest to confess, I left it to pass.
Yesterday was different. The male attendant when I queued to pay for my chillz chocolate shake, spotted me -- "huy, si Ma'm ang cute!"
"Tingnan mo si Ma'm" calling off to his fellow attendant. Not sure if he meant, short, fat, and bowlegged. He went on, "Ma'm ilan taon na po kayo?" I kept my cool and sanity, besides that, there were people around. I didn't want to flare, my nostrils were cool too.
"Ma'm ang cute niyo. Ilan taon na po kayo?" Don't you know that's private information, I replied rather kindly but my eyes were in search of his manager. "Ma'm ilan taon na, 48 ba?" My team mates and I left, headed back to work.
This is my shout out in Facebook dated Friday, April 25, 2013. To quote some comments:
“Just view it in a positive way and say ‘thank you,” nagagandahan siya sa iyo. There are really people who are appreciative of beauty, they just don’e know how to say it in the most appropriate manner.”
“That was certainly bad manners even if the guy was obviously trying to compliment you. You could have told him off magnanimously by saying, ‘young man, you never ask that question of any lady.’ But you were well within your rights to leave and let the supervisor figure it out.”
“I certainly may not want to see you personally for I might lose my good manners admiring you, hehehe… anyway, I admire you for staying cool in that situation. I am sure he is sincere and just do not know when and how to express it with grace and maybe just so excited and did not know how to show it rightfully.”
“Though is words seemed complimenting, I’d have to hear the way he said it to make a good judgment. But honestly, I find this to be an annoying pinoy habit. He may have meant well but I personally find unsolicited remarks like these intrusive and a bit offensive. Worse, it leaves you with a feeling of ambivalence. I’d much rather he kept it to himself. But if that happened to me, I would’ve leaned over and whispered in his ear that it is impolite to ask for a woman’s age especially in public.”
This comment takes the cake: “I would have answered… I’m 95.”
