Cut Her Off

The deed is done.

Had in possession, three items belonging to the ex tea teacher. Returned them in a parcel via courier service. Don't want to see her face. In fact, don't even want to talk to her, ever. Enough. There's a terse note in the parcel instructing her never to contact me again, and simply deposit the money owed into my bank account either through online transfer or a check deposit. Not that I actually expect her to. At her ripe old age, she's absolutely useless in financial planning.

A grown woman who can't even pay back a loan of $1000 used to generate a bidder ID placed on my credit card as a deposit with HDB last October. Even more pissed with myself for taking pity on her, interrupted a vacation to register and successfully bid for a shop unit online for her. A shop unit that she's currently operating a tea shop/school out of. She was all so flustered and oh-so-poor-thing because she doesn't own a credit or debit card and the bank couldn't issue one for her in time.

Eight months on, after moving into said shop unit, completing renovations and settling in, she shows no sign of wanting to pay me back $1000, even via instalments. It's $1,000, not $10,000. Then don't fucking promise to do so! She keeps placing returning the amount to me as the lowest priority, citing that she has other bills to pay, outrightly telling me that she assumes I don't need the money urgently, and the best story, telling me she was only left with $50 for Lunar New Year, and had to convince her assistant to take a week's paycut so that she had money to give an ang pow to her mother. You expect me to feel sympathetic? No I don't. She had the temerity to suggest that I should buy teapots (not teas okay) from her over two seasons and deduct from the amount. I refuse to be pressurized into buying teapots that I don't need, and don't want. Plus she charges me so much more for the teapots which another shop offers me at a better price. I feel so taken advantage of.

Haven't even counted the times when she sent me pieces of translation to do. Especially when she knew I was away in London last year, saying it out with the breezy assumption, "Oh you're at home all day with nothing to do anyway." And sent five fucking emails over 48 hours because I ignored the first one.  Very fun to click forward izzit? OMG, seriously, FFS. Then she wanted me to organize a tea event, partnering someone else she would appoint, because she thought it would be great for us to work together. Oh good lawwwd, she has no idea how anal I am about work and partners, or the sort of effort required in organizing such an event. And no, there is absolutely no reason for me to work with whomever she appoints. She has no right to tell me what to do. She ought to learn to ASK, POLITELY. She's not my employer; I'm not paid, so why would I be enthusiastic about it? If she expects everyone to help her for free, or even expend that energy to because she's all alone, so pitiful and without resources, then she should be operating a charity, not a tea shop.

Hit the roof in April when I realized that in recommending my friends to buy tea from this shop, at last count, 15 of them suffered insults from her, (paraphrased from Mandarin) ranging from "You'll be even more sissy if you continue to drink Oriental Beauty", to "You don't look very intelligent", etc. WTF. Needless to say, every friend left the shop without a purchase. I had to personally apologize to each. So if 15 people are pissed off with her, I reach the conclusion that the issue is with her. Never been so embarrassed in my life. Rescinded all previous recommendations for this tea shop.

Last straw. The day before Vesak Day, significant because she's Buddhist. Out of the blue, she texted me that each time (paraphrased from Chinese) she sees Kevin (a then-tea classmate), she thinks of me, and hopes that we (Kevin and I) will be fated (together) in our next lives. I was livid. Next fucking life. NEXT LIVES. HALLO, I BELIEVE IN PURGATORY. Texted right back with four Chinese words to tell her that it was a lame-ass meaningless message. She had the total lack of situational awareness to still reply that it was a feeling she had because we (Kevin and I) were both kind souls. WTF. In one fell swoop, she insulted the integrity of my marriage, my awesome partner whom she had met but couldn't communicate with, my religion and thoroughly offended me beyond words.

You, teaching me about culture? Placing your lack-of-worldly views on me? What are you, 18 years old? Why don't you acquire some tact and customer service skills first?

Enough. I've no more respect for this woman. If I don't cut her off, I'll end up distancing myself from tea, which is something I like. Don't know what kind of world she comes from, and what sort of customs and behaviors are deemed appropriate in there. Whatever they are, they certainly aren't accepted in mine.

I'm stopping short of naming her tea shop in this post. Those who know, know.