I was in a shop chatting with a few young ladies, or more like listening in to some gossips and other girls' talk... and actually, feeling out of place.
Suddenly, one of them screamed and stood up (behind the counter), pointing to her mug! They were on the subject of ghosts, but surely not in broad daylight! Her reaction, to me, was like either having seen a ghost or a snake. But it was only a mid-sized lizard, attracted by an unwashed mug left overnight. Compared to my encounter with a giant monitor lizard in our living room, it was nothing. In my case, I actually stood up and my chair fell off balance!
She said, "Someone please take it away." Even the young man said he was squirmish over lizards. Me too, with any kind of reptiles. None of the other ladies was the odd type, to like lizards. Then she said, "I'm not going to drink from that mug... no, I am going to throw away the mug." One of them suggested, "Why not put the mug in the display cabinet and use one of those?"
Taking the black plastic from the waste basket, she proceeded to take the mug (with the lizard still inside) and threw it in the bag and took it to the public bin.
The question which ran through my mind, 'Can we actually avoid not using any mug, bowl or plate visited by a lizard?' It is virtually impossible to prevent lizards from getting at our washed items, especially if left overnight on the draining rack, even if kept in a kitchen cabinet. The right thing to do is to rinse it again before use. But then again, when eating out, we are left at the mercy of hawkers and restaurant workers, when it comes to hygiene.
Some Chinese restaurants and coffee shops have a bowl of hot water for us to rinse our bowls, cups, chopsticks and spoons. It was only recently that I came across one mamak shop along Anderson Road, Ipoh where the forks and spoons were kept in hot water at every table! This is a good sign and I am sure it is not the only mamak shop doing that, and I hope more will do the same.
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