As expected, in the week after Cameron Highlands, a torrent of photographs started flowing onto the group's site.
Then an odd thing happened.
In one of the pictures, I am standing at the summit of Mount Beremban, my shoes covered in mud, my posture deplorable, and I apparently look lost. A person who didn't go on the trip and whose screen name I don't recognise tagged me in the picture. And he sent me a message, saying that my email doesn't work, and whether I would "care to" provide another. His face isn't in his profile picture either.
Huh? was my response. Have we met?
Turns out, he is a guy from the trek to Gunung Bunga Buah in September. He got the shits just as we were started the ascent and decided to sit it out. He also went on to describe the state of my feet after the ordeal. "Need I decribe more?" he asked.
Oh! I say. I remember you! But what did you want with my email?
In reply, I receive an overly polite message about how I seem to have "misunderstood" his intentions, he was just trying to send me pictures from the trek but the email address I provided had not worked, apologies if he "startled" me, see you again at another trek, merry christmas and happy new year.
Isn't the underlying message very clear? 'I am taking offence to your response to my overtures'. A I-NOT-HAPPY message if I ever saw one (certainly, it's true that it takes one to know one).
Huh? What right do you have to be pissed off? I am tempted to respond. If I were to reach out 3 months after the initial brief interaction, I surely won't assume the other party would remember me by playing some inexplicable Cluedo-style game. It'd only be reasonable to describe the circumstances of our meeting and state your intentions straight off the bat, possibly starting off with, 'I don't know if you remember me, but ...'
Pleeeeeease don't let me see this person again!
