Fly A Plane

There is a phrase in Chinese, pronounced "Fong Fei Kei" (abbrv. FFK) in Cantonese, which translates literally to "let the airplane go"... or so I think, in my flawed mastery of the language. It means to stand someone up. We translate that to "fly someone('s) aeroplane" in local colloquialism. Oh, and a person who habitually FFKs is endearingly known as "The Pilot".

I found it rather amusing that on the very same day I got stood up like I've never been stood up before, my Roomee should mention it in her status update. Amusement I much needed, indeed.

Seriously, being stood up isn't such a big deal. Although it is not something I do to others, I can understand why people need to do it sometimes. There are always the little "emergencies", matters that have higher priority, the suddenly-feeling-under-the-weather, and the I-feel-kinda-lazy-to-go-out-today-so-maybe-next-time? moments. It is not uncommon (or perhaps it's me being rather FFK-able?) to receive a text on the same day of the appointment, sometimes just hours before, sometimes minutes after the agreed time, and see these dreaded words: "can't make it". Often, they're preceded by "I'm sorry" and succeeded by a reason. And really, all we want to do is believe that these Pilots didn't mean to have done it, that they would have sincerely not chosen to FFK had there been an alternative.

It is what I want to believe. Even if I did not receive a word. Even if I'd waited in eager anticipation till it was late enough for me to realise it wasn't going to happen. Even if the reason was later nonchalantly revealed to be "I've forgotten".

Oh, poor memory is a valid reason, of course. I mean that in earnest. A very dear friend and I once made plans for a dinner date. She's always very occupied and we don't get to meet often, so we set a date an entire month ahead and marked it in both our calendars to make sure we don't schedule other events over it. When the day came, we BOTH forgot we're supposed to be in each other's company, having dinner. We only remembered it the next day, and had a good laugh over how senile we've become.

So, having FFK-ed on account of being absent-minded isn't really a big deal. Except, I guess, when one of the parties remembered, and the other possibly felt no remorse at having forgotten. Still, I should not kick up a fuss. It's no big deal. It's no big deal. It's no big deal. If I repeat that enough...

Roomee says to fly a plane right back. Ahhh, sweet revenge! But, I think we both know we're too grown-up to do something like that on purpose, just out of spite =)