FAREWELL PARTY: ONE MUFFIN AT A TIME

An hour early taking off from work at 1200 noon instead of 1300 on my 1000 – 1300 daily shift at Sherbourne Residence to bid farewell on one of the staff leaving for another job. A box consist of a dozen of muffin is served by the residence manager.

All staff sat by the table only had one muffin and a cup of tea. Nothing more. I am amazed and confused at the same time but hesitated to ask why, if it has something to do with English culture or just a common diet. And yes, all my working colleagues are English except for a couple of fellow workers from countries far far away from England like myself.

I jokingly urged one of the ladies, to have another muffin when it looks like she really wanted to have another go but later hesitated. She responded with mumbling some disagreement lines sounded like she’s not having it and it won’t happen anyway. As if having two muffins for one single tea break is offensive or humiliating and self-disrespect. As if you don’t really mind about your health and sugar intake. For God’s sake, they’re just muffins but for them, maybe it’s more than that. Maybe it's already considered over-eating, I think?

Maybe it is just one of their many ways of maintaining their healthy English lifestyle of not having more than what you needed for your body. The rest of the ladies went home an hour later as I’m the only one with the three-hour shift instead of four.

I decided to remain quiet and finish sipping off my cup of tea, gobbled my muffin and picked up my backpack and bike helmet, heading myself home on my push bike, leaving an open case on why did they all have one muffin instead of two as one of unresolved mysteries I encountered during the farewell treat. And this mystery keeps popping up in my head every time I saw muffins in the bakery store till today. One muffin at a time. I get it. That's a bummer.