Not A Snooty Snob

My colleagues and I had to stay back for the past two days to get some job done. The first evening, we started out together and about an hour later as the job was nearing completion, I realised there were only me and another girl left. So I headed back to the office to surf the Net while waiting for evening prayers. Before long it dawned on me that I was alone in the office with some new blood. I did wonder what happened to my colleagues - one of them had ordered pizza to be delivered – and guessed they must be in another room devouring the pizza. I was starting to feel hungry but not hungry enough to leave my online game.

While in the prayer room yesterday, somehow this (the fact that I was absent when they were enjoying pizza) crept into our conversation and the colleague who ordered the pizza remarked, ‘You really should join in more next time.’ I was a little stunned and stung with this remark. Yes, I’m a bit of a Lone Ranger in the sense that I do go off for lunch alone sometimes – a quick pop to the nearest departmental store, or to Jalan TAR to browse things, or to send some shoes for repair to the cobbler. And if I don’t have any lunch appointment during Friday lunchtime, I usually go off to BB or sometimes KLCC alone. And I normally buy a packed lunch (lunch to go) as I prefer to sit in the air-conditioned office than at the eatery and I can play Scrabble or read newspapers or do some work as I eat. But this doesn’t mean I shun the company of others although yes, there are some people whose company I do not enjoy.

What did she mean by that remark? I don’t think I did anything wrong by not joining in and if I deliberately did decide not to join them in the pizza fest which I didn’t, surely it was my loss and I should be the one making a big deal out of it, not the other way around. True, I don’t usually join other people for lunch at times – because we have different diet or food preference or I have an errand to run – but surely this doesn’t mean that I’m a snooty snob who snub others or look down on them. It’s just that I have always eaten lunch to go (unless my mate and I decided to go to some resto for lunch) and usually go off on my own during Friday lunchtime and this has never been a problem to me or to anyone else. Until now.

Now I wonder if people have been thinking that I’m a snob and all because I prefer to do my own activity during lunch – be it having lunch on my own, running errands or doing a bit of window shopping. Really, surely it is a non-issue. But I decided to make an effort today anyway and joined them for lunch (I think they were a little surprised with this). I did notice I was the only one using cutlery, just like at the fish head lunch the other day, but hey it’s not a crime to be different.

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Arsenal recorded another 3-0 victory over Newcastle only three days from their last encounter with goals from buoyant Adebayor, flaming Flamini and fabulous Fàbregas. I’m delighted with this and especially with Fàbregas – the last time he scored for Arsenal was almost three months ago in the match against ManUre on 3 November 2007. Let’s hope Walcott will start scoring soon too.