Some people just want to watch you starve
2024-06-05 14:25:00 +07:00 by Mark Smith
Sadly another textbook example of the bullies creating the problem they complain about, blocking the solution they suggest, and eventually blaming it all on me. This one is going to be a bit depressing. Life is like that sometimes.
About a month ago, my portable coffee mug went missing. I used to use it for instant noodles too, so it was quite a big loss. It disapeared under very strange circumstances. I wrote about it at the time. In any case I had been mostly avoiding instant noodles because in one of the places where they have hot water heaters in the public areas, a strange old lady was making it look like she was pouring small recepticles of clear liquid into the water heaters. I don't know for sure whether she was actually doing it or not, but I did end up with several sore throats.
Following that, the incidents of people gifting me large numbers of instant noodles packets increased significantly. Sometimes big bags full of them. Since I had no way to cook them I had no choice but to refuse them or throw them away. And guess what, I got blamed, 'what an ungrateful foreigner'. Nevermind that I was often starving.
In parrallel to this, the water supply in the taps at one of the public toilets slowly, bit by bit, week by week, systematically got reduced and eventually cut off. That was an entire ordeal in itself, but in any case now there is a red bucket outside the toilet that people are supposed to use to clean their hands. I don't use it because not only is it likely a new popular bath location, for the bird fauna in the neighbouring park, but I've seen the toilet staff use the same red bucket to clean the toilets. Fucking gross.
Well in the interim over the past few weeks I decided to start eating noodles again since the previous noodles drama seemed long ago. So I've been enjoying the occasional instant noodles. That helps a lot when there is no food, and also a way to keep hydrated. Instead of the coffee mug I've been reusing an instant noodles recepticle. If you pay a bit more you get a recepticle, the noodles on their own are 1/2 the price. But the recepticle was made of cardboard on the outside so it wears out quite quickly.
Well the recepticle I was reusing was getting quite knackered. This morning though I got gifted some noodles from a food vendor, which was very nice, though it seemed like it could very well have been part of some sort of grift, where they make it seem like it's a gift, then when you don't pay, they look very disapointed and sad, even though they have been asking you all about the difficulties you've been having stuck in Vietnam since COVID. Even though they walked up to you and said they would give you some noodles. Anyway, that's a whole other story I won't get into. Their noodles were very nice, and what was great they came in a compleately plastic bowl, one I can safely reuse. Brilliant, a problem solved!
Well guess what, eventually everything good gets broken. It happens every time. I had the gifted noodles sitting in a cafe / shop for breakfast. I also had an instant noodles to test out the new plastic bowl. Worked great. A few hours later, lunch time swings around and literally just as I was about to get another instant noodles packet, one of the shop cafe staff walks up the stairs with, you guessed it, a red bucket, identical to the public toilet bucket, full of water, which he then uses to fill up the water heater with. At this point I notice I have a bit of a sore throat and a massive case of dry mounth, which hasn't been happening all the other times I've had instant noodles the past week.
It's likely not the exact same bucket, but it is literally a bucket you could use to mop the floor. And guess how the place was configured the day before? I arrived to find all the stools upside down on the tables, evidently they had been moping the floor. It's hard to impart how strange this configuration is. I've been going there every day for months and months now, and that was literally the first time I've seen all the stools upside down on the tables like that. What are the chances?
So one problem fixed, but then another one immediately created, blocked once again, no more noodles for me, and in an even worse situation than before. Whenever they help you, they also mutilate you.
This is happening constantly with literally every fucking thing, every fucking day. And what's more there are people that are fully aware of the situation, egging you on, pushing you to have the noodles, pushing you to walk into thier evil and malicious trap, and then finding it absolutely hilarious when you do. And they will also find it the most hilarious thing in the universe when you are starving and can only afford an instant noodles. They just want to watch you starve.