MARCH 30 — It can get discomforting to have a pair of eyes on you as you try to do some work.
It could be the uncle at a ceramah peering down on your notes as you furiously scribble down what a politico is saying.
Or your boss hovering over you as you struggle to meet his or her 20-minute deadline to deliver a story that “should have been in yesterday!”
But at least they’re living, breathing creatures.
It’s quite something else when you have to contend with the unliving eyes of a horse sculpture.
To explain my predicament — last weekend I was brought out of my familiar surroundings due to family circumstance, so I had little choice but to pick a nearby nightspot to write my column.
Sure, I don’t HAVE to go to a pub to write my columns, but I tend to do my best work in comfortable surroundings. Especially when I have a ready supply of brain fuel.
Unfortunately my laptop was low on juice, so the helpful bar manager sat me down at a table with the closest power point which happened to be right in front of a full-sized horse sculpture.
Which had a lamp on its head.
A lamp. On its head.
Despite it being gaudy, I don’t really have an issue with people putting up horse sculptures of any size on their premises.
But with the lamp on its head, the light simply emphasised the off-white eyes, as if they were staring me down.
As if it was sizing me up.
As if I was seated where I was to face judgement.
I looked up at it and figured I could sit with my back towards it to avoid the gaze.
But because I knew it was “looking” at me — as irrational as that sounds — it felt as though those golf ball-sized eyeball carvings were boring a hole in my back.
So I did what I felt was the most sensible thing — move to a different table.
Which, I think, applies to many things in life. Some guy on the highway is tailgating you on the right lane, switch lanes. (AND YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD.)
Some overly-curious uncle keeps looking at your notes, move further to the side and away from his gaze.
Sure, we find ourselves in some strange — if not creepy — situations but in a lot of cases it’s just a matter of being proactive on your own part.
Confrontation is one way to deal with perceived invasions of privacy, but in many cases probably unnecessary.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but just bear in mind that you’d probably look like a big A-hole.
Or a complete idiot.
Imagine me going up to the horse sculpture and posturing; “You got a beef with me? DO YOU HAVE A BEEF WITH ME?”
Tanjung Rambutan material, that.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
