Broken China and Bad Manners

A trip around Jusco’s to find a suitable wedding photo album for our photos. One of many projects put to one side in the rush to up sticks and move country. We had one last Jusco voucher so why not use it. Out of curiosity Mrs. Klite is looking at some money banks also known as piggy banks. This one is particular is a bit weird because its difficult to figure out what creature its meant to be. Closer inspection reveals it supposed to be an owl!. Oh well so Mrs. Klite goes to put it back, it slips out her hands into an upward trajectory, panic sets in and its caught on its way down only for it to bounce out again, panic again and another attempt to catch it again, down it comes into the hand and slips out again. I swear I saw the final moment in slow motion watching it smash into a million pieces on the floor. What the first thing we do? We look around to see if anyone has seen us. In the middle of a busy department store on Labour Day , of course we were bound to have an audience, yet we were looking around like guilty children ! I guess some thing we never leave behind in our childhood. So the thing about breakages in any place is that you have to pay for them. So much for the voucher, it’s gone in a moment. I tempted to take what’s left of the broken china with the barcode on home to justify what the money was spent on!

As with the title of bad manners which the astute of you may remind of a skinhead group from the eighties (showing your age- ) give yourself a point if you can remember the name of the lead singer who is now running a B&B somewhere in England. Anyway bad manners are something I’m beginning to notice more and more here. Does this mean I’m become more like a local in picking up these things or are my expectations from England unrealistic? The one example here is queuing. Now the kids here are always having drummed into them to be respectful of others and not to push in, but when you are obviously queuing for the toilets (notice how everybody’s bladder seems to be synchronized- maybe its herd mentality) you all queue up, then along comes an middle age adult who just pushes in front of everyone especially the kids who they would probably lecture to about good manners and queuing, talk about practicing what you preach. I don’t know whether it a general dumbing down of the population or something they are putting in the water. You’ll find littering is bad, people will throw their rubbish into the drain blocking it. Even in my apartment block there is a notice asking people not to throw their rubbish/ cigarettes out of the window onto the street or play area because the management have to clean it up, which all of us have to pay for. What’s worse is that the rubbish attracts flies and vermin causing further problems. The blocked drains will trap water which becomes stagnant and a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the inevitable dengue fever outbreak will occur again all because of a lack of common sense. Maybe it would be better if these people would catch dengue fever therefore weeding out some the worse parts of the gene pool.

Music of the Moment : Tpau – China in your hand