I am back from a weekend cruise with the family. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. I was glad for time spent with the folks but at the same time, glad to be back where there is mobile reception and where jogging and looking out at the sea simultaneously doesn't make me want to throw up last night's dinner.

I've never counted myself racist. Prior to this weekend, I'd always thought I was racially tolerant. Until I found myself living on a ship where 95% of the passengers were of that particular race. From that particular country. Just so I don't incriminate myself (you know how us bloggers can get sued for anything now from posting naked pictures of ourselves to making racist remarks), we shall call them Zyrgs. From the country that is Zrygia.

Now, I have nothing against Zyrgs. But I found them to be incredibly rude and obnoxious. Every single Zyrg man, woman and child had blatant disrespect for the concept of queues. None of them thought it rude to push past the rest of us who were queueing. It didn't matter what the queue was for. The Zyrgs just had to be first. At the head of the queue. Always. Like their existence, hell, the entire Zyrgian community, depended on it. So anyway, I thought I'd stand up for myself and plant myself firmly on the ground with the full intention of obstructing the next Zyrg who tried to push past me. The unfortunate Zyrg was a small girl. I will not say "little girl" because that conjures up images of cute pink dress, cherubic smile and ponytails. This girl was none of the above. She was mean. And so she used whatever strength she had to push against me. Of course I feigned ignorance as I am so capable of doing, and simply stood still. Now, it doesn't take much effort from me to resist the push of a small girl so I didn't have to exert much force and could look nonchalant. The small girl, however, looked up at me with horror that I would not let a Zyrg child pass. Too bad for her. She met someone who thought she needed to learn some manners.

So that was one of the many awful encounters with Zyrgs throughout the trip. Another small child (this time a snooty little boy sitting with his mother) called out to a waiter and went "You! Time?" Waiters are not your clocks, boy. Ask them nicely. For example, "Excuse me, do you have the time?" And not just "TIME?" like they were your butler. So very, very rude.

The adults were just plain obnoxious, making a lot of noise throughout and interrupting my tranquil time on a deck chair with my book. They had to come along and occupy every other deck chair available in that stretch and shout to one another. The one seated on my left shouted to the one seated on my right. Yes, they shouted over me. And it's not like the deck chairs were miles apart. They were adjacent to each other.

I never knew I could be so irritated with Zyrgs. They've never bugged me till now. It is going to take much effort to make me like Zyrgs again. I know I'm far from perfect myself. But that doesn't mean others need to be obnoxious.

Apart from the Zyrgs, the cruise went well. Quite happy. Will update more tomorrow.