My personal judgements on social tolerance and level for self-development started one morning when my neighbour messaged me to help her consume half a giant jackfruit.
My roomie and I were in the middle of a card game then. Yet I was interested to get some of this sweet-tooth fix that I excused myself and went outside to the garden.
Our neighbour had this wonderful garden where she grows all her food and in the middle was a small green table. A jackfruit was sitting there, unopened.
“Oh no…” was all I could think of as she didn’t just need help consuming it. She needed help opening this hard-shelled, spikey alien of a nature’s gift.
Back at home, we had maids open these things for us so this was my first time murdering one. Murder, as I soon found out, was the right word after we’ve opened the darn thing.
My neighbour had a go at it first with a kitchen knife. She was getting her pension this year so that pretty much explains why after a few jabs, she asked me to step in and try. I literally took a stab at it and was losing hope faster than my grandma drinking beer on a family occasion.
My roomie, being all-around efficient and has tougher hands, was soon called over. She didn’t want to go in the first place and was grumbling about not wanting to. Yet she stepped out half-heartedly and walked towards the fruit, fixing her face.
During that small amount of time, I had these thoughts of how come this was so interesting to me (as I was opening a jackfruit for the first time) and to her it was just another stone in her shoe.
The jackfruit, challenging three grown women to open it, now lay unopened on the garden floor. We were trying to get better leverage. Our neighbour made her way to the back of her cottage and took out an axe.
Remember how I mentioned I murdered the Jackfruit? Now you know why.
We took turns opening it with the rusty (soil drenched, semi-discarded) garden axe and made far more progress than we’ve ever had with the kitchen knife. Funny thing was, I saw this guy wielding an axe yesterday for a gym work out on my way out the office.
The timing was impeccable! I took a turn and told the two other women to stand back. After a few huffs and puffs, the jackfruit had a wider middle gap that was easier to open. We then took turns and some minutes after, the other half of the fruit was on our kitchen counter.
“Because of that jackfruit, I had an interesting morning!” I yelled out to our neighbour with a smile and waved goodbye.
Then I notice the sour expression on my roommate’s face. She was complaining how she didn’t want to go in the first place. And because of that, she felt irritated as to how the rubber from the fruit was making her hands all sticky. I can see she was having one of her mood swings and soon after, she noticed that the washing wasn’t done, how stuff were not in order and was practically raining down on a good morning even if I’ve already cleaned tons yesterday.
This got me thinking how some people see little first times (like using an axe and opening a jackfruit) as an event so fascinating while another can see it as something totally uninspiring, tiresome and mundane.
Then one of my favourite quotes pop up in my head: when it comes to living life, you have to have a child-like fascination, not a childish outlook.
My stay here in Australia has really helped me reflect on myself and see how people are and how I’d react to their actions. I will always look at things differently until someone comes along and give their two cents. Yet I’ll always wonder why they react the way that they do and see it the way they do.
All I know is, I can’t let that rain ruin a fine morning. So I grabbed the dish washing wand and started singing a tune while I started doing the dishes.
Benz is Street Snapping 