Do unto others as you would have them do to you

I must learn to do unto others only what I would like them do to me.
Here's what I get when I don't.


Past midnight after work one day.
Very drained and zonked out.
Midly impatient that the cab I called still hasn't arrived after a good 10 mins wait.

When it finally came, I garnered my last ounce of strength to lug the laptop and the luggage of workpapers on the cab and slammed the door shut... albeit a little too loudly.

I don't like others to treat me as a punch bag and vent their anger or displeasure at me though it's no fault of mine, do I?

Clearly, the cab driver wasn't too pleased and reminded me in an admonishing tone, "xiao jie, this is an auto door, don't have to use so much force to close it"

Point taken.
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Me: Mumbled a quick apology.
Uncle, XXX place please.
Cab driver: The originally quite chirpy face turns a shade darker.

Oops. I get upset even when pple call me 'xiao jie' now and no longer 'xiao mei'. I shouldn't presume that all cab drivers are already Uncles. He looks slightly younger than the stereotype middle-age uncles. And the radio is tuned to Perfect 10. I gotta be more observant!

My fault
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In a bid to clear the slightly frosty air and do damage control, he doubled as a tourguide as we passed Mohammed Sultan- identifying all the clubs and pubs along the street.

I 'yeah, ya and oh' along. It isn't exactly a very nice feeling to relish, to see crowds of clubbers and party- goers have fun and unwind when I have been slogging at work at the client's place a few doors down these clubs.

Not daring to cut him off his enthusiastic rambling, I resorted to my most used tactic of whipping up the handphone to fend off any more conversation. Appeared to be fully focused on replying smses and answering a few phonecalls. Silence and peace ensued for a while.

Nearing my destination, i started giving him directions as to how to get to my place.
Me: 'Uncle, after the bus stop, chuan zuo' (Since the harm of calling him an uncle was already done, might as well continue right? Aniwei, how to address cab drivers other than uncles?Sir?)

Cab driver gets defensive: Why must you switch to Mandarin? You think all cab drivers can't understand English? We have to undergo training and speak proper English to passengers you know. Not Singlish like you were speaking to your friend over the phone just now. Btw, It's not ' I take already', its ' I took'.

What can I say? I got a taste of my own medicine.

For discourteously cutting him off with phonecalls and smsing.
For slipping into Singlish when I, condescendingly correct people's Singlish at other times.
For switching to Mandarin. I never liked it when friends/ colleague switch to English when I join the conversations- as if I can't hold a conversation in Mandarin. I should have known better than to do that. Bad bad move on my part.

Tsk. Shame on you, cranberry.