Crew conflict

Just back from another whopper 9-day trip to Singapore, Brisbane and auckland, the longest trip pattern we have, when good crew are absolutely essential to maintain sanity and motivation. I have to say all the crew are super nice, with the exception of 2 (out of 16) which so happen to be working in the same cabin as me. I have flown with both of them before on separate flights with a not-so-good residual impression. Let’s call them crew A and crew B. A and B also flown with each other before and made it pretty clear that they do not enjoy mutual presence.
A has been with EK from the start which equates to roughly 20 years. He loves being THE boss and made sure you know he is THE boss. B is just a generally hard person to tackle, bitchy too. To add icing on the cake, both of them are fasting muslims in compliance to the holy month of Ramadan, thus they are hungry, thirsty and sluggish half the time. A and B are similar in many ways. While some say 2 birds of the same flock together, they are more tending to two like poles constantly repelling each other. They resented each other from the start, and these feelings could only get worse and snowball with each passing day.
They are also experts in verbal war and sarcasm in their own league. I could not help but marvel in the midst of own exasperation how they manage to constantly haul insults at each other in all smiles, charm and calm. They even make coffee for each other and did stretches in the galley together! Instead of trying to avoid each other’s path to minimize friction, they love maximizing contact while carrying own potion of venom to attack at every chance.
The worst thing is, I felt victimized by it all. You see, A will bitch to me about B when she is away and B will bitch to me about A when he is away. Somehow I must have this face that says “complain to me, dump all your grievances on me”. I am stuck between the two of them, trying to maintain a neutral stance and getting sick of hearing all the bad things each have to say about the other.
On one particular occasion, B came storming into the galley. “Do you know what A just said to me?”
“what…?”, I responded half-heartedly and with dread.
“He says that if I keep eating like I do, I will soon have problems fitting between the aisles! How rude is that?! He is not skinny himself! How dare he…hmmmpphh!”
“Perhaps you can tell him it’s ok as long as your husband likes the way you are…”, came a weak response from me since she is married.
“I already said that! I am happy with the way I am and I enjoy my food and life.”
Suddenly, in came A out of nowhere.
“Oh, here you are! I was just telling Sharon what you said to me about my weight,” B coos with a broad smile on her face, while mine is getting ashen, my eyeballs popping and fighting to stay in the sockets.
#@*##^!!! I am suddenly involuntarily involved and in the middle of the war zone. It is one thing to listen to each of them complaining separately, and totally another to be caught in the middle of a cross-fire.
“Yes yes yes, you should not eat so much like I said before, “ A retorted without the slightest flinch, and with all smiles of course.
The next 30 seconds of verbal battle is all but a hazy memory coz my mind decided to shut them out. Then, I was disrupted when B proceeded to pick up a piece of sweet from the petit fours platter on the galley top, waved it deliberately in front of A before putting it into her mouth along with face and sound effects of satisfaction. Why on earth is she further aggravating him??? Realizing there is no way of diffusing the situation and refusing to stay and be a witness to two silly and immature egos fighting, I excused myself lamely and ran to business class to seek refuge.
The rest of the crew were more unfazed by the ongoing conflict between them two. Although they were all aware of the tension, they don’t need to bear the brunt of it all like me since they don’t get the bombardment of complaints that seemed to only flow toward me. We are all adults, there has to be a better way of addressing and resolving issues apart of childish and petty tactics. Don’t they get tired of all the constant bickering? I am mentally tortured and exhausted, and I am not even the one having conflicts.
My only comfort and relief is Singapore.
At least they did not engage in physical fights using fists or our very heavy and deadly silver trays like some other stories I heard. The most shocking one so far involved one passenger literally tossing his own pile of shit into another passenger’s face! You must know that before he can do that he must go to the lavatory and pick up his own shit into his own hands…what a remotely disgusting act! I try to blame that on oxygen-deprived brains messing with the mind and being stuck in 35,000 feet in a metal tube full of people. It propels strange and extreme behaviour from people somehow. But that is another topic of discussion.
Just glad that the trip is over. I am now praying that there will be no major crew conflict in my next trip in two days, which is the second longest trip we have that spans 8 days. Wish me luck.