Do I get preferential treatment...

... on the MRT train nowadays? That's what a friend asked me today. Well, it is generally regarded as a common courtesy to offer your seat "to those who need it more". That includes the elderly, the handicapped, those with young children and the pregnant. And there are many advertising campaigns to remind the general public of this obligation.

Well, I replied, only somtimes. Maybe I don't look that pregnant yet. Pong is constantly amused by me asking him if I look pregnant. I think it rather depends on what clothes I wear - sometimes I just look fat. Although Pong now replies almost every day that I do look pregnant, regardless of what I wear. I guess at 24 weeks, it is hard to hide the fact that I am pregnant.

I think sometimes people don't offer me a seat, not because they do not think I need it more than them. (Indeed, I may not need the seat as much as them. After all, pregnancy is not an illness, but a normal life event right?) I think sometimes people are just too engrossed in what they are doing to realise who is standing in front of them or what is going on in front of their eyes. This man was so engrossed in looking at his phone that he didn't realise I took a photo of him, even though I was standing right in front of him in a crowded MRT train.