Sometimes when we think we’ve seen all the examples of the lack of common sense, someone would suddenly pop up just to surprise us all over again.

They’ve reinforced my belief that all people, regardless of race, language, or religion, in this fine land (literally) are in serious need of General Common Sense Education (GCSE). Ok, sorry that was lame.

The phrase “common sense is uncommon” is an understatement.

So mum and I were playing badminton at the court downstairs. Suddenly these 3 incredibly smart kids came onto the court and started playing with one skate scooter as if mum and I weren’t there.

You know, if I were in that department for planning our curriculum, the GCSE syllabus would probably look something like this:

CHAPTER 1: USING COMMON SENSE IN THE BADMINTON COURT

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the chapter, candidates should be able to:

1) understand the dangers of standing between 2 people playing badminton
2) explain why one should not stand near 2 people playing badminton
3) realize that walking right in between 2 people playing badminton is stupid
4) IN OTHER WORDS, STOP WALKING IN BETWEEN 2 PEOPLE PLAYING BADMINTON! WTH IS YOUR PROBLEM!

First there was this woman. Mind you, she wasn’t that kind of old lady who couldn’t walk without her walking stick. She was probably in her early 20s, and just nonchalantly walked across the court, right in between us. I had this strong temptation to just smack the shuttlecock right into her. Actually, I initially wanted to pretend to lose control of my racquet and fling it at her, but thank God I didn’t.

Later on was this guy, probably in his 30s, who also just as bo chap just walked across. He even gave me that kind of “how-dare-you-play-while-I’m-cutting-across” look as he walked straight in between us. Well, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but the way he walked was as if he deserved us to stop playing while he was walking across. Naturally we paused to let him cross, but that’s not the point. I just didn’t want to give myself the chance to fling my racquet at him.

Oh, did I mention those kids? Almost throughout the entire time mum and I were playing, they were doing stupid tricks on their skate scooter. Like, after getting enough momentum, the kid would squat on the scooter and let it roll. Wow lor. Well, maybe because they’re still (from what they looked like) lower elementary kids, I didn’t really tick them off. But there were a few times they, as well as some other kids, nearly crushed mum’s specs. Especially this kid who, on the bike, stopped just in time to not crush the specs, but part of its wheel had landed on my mum’s specs. His friend who was just in front of him had obviously seen mum’s specs, but, not knowing what it was (he admitted as much), obviously thought it was alright not to warn his friend. Thank God my mum used her shrill voice and scared the kid to half-death. He still looked a bit shaken, since he didn’t know what wrong he’d done.

But this brings me back to my point that sometimes, people should just STAY AWAY when people are playing badminton. I mean, how difficult/troublesome is it to just move out a bit more and walk slightly more for the convenience of others?

Oh well, self-centeredness.