Pearls of tim-bits

There are so many little things to mention… but it’s all quite frivolous indeed…

I haven’t yet found any pearls of wisdom, except maybe for what I was explained by my friend Liu last night over dinner …

You see, I often encounter extremely drunk men being assisted by almost-as drunk friends… at the hotel, in the streets, in restaurants…everywhere. For the most part, they are loud and scandalous. The drunk women yell all the time in a very annoying high pitched voice… And I am told that times are changing and that it used to be a lot worse than that…nowadays, people are more health conscious and don’t insist on marinating themselves stupid…One of the occasions for getting drunk is on signing of a deal… according to local custom, if you don’t get totally wasted with your new business partners, it means that you don’t totally trust them and that you will have a tendency to keep a watchful eye on them… Hmmm…I guess it does make some sense…

I always knew that Tom has great trust in people!!! (hehehe)

Another little slice in the everyday life of Nat is shopping in the mini-wall mart…It’s not actually a W-M but you can find almost everything: humidifiers, dishes, books, clothing, etc. I found this place near the hotel and thought I’d spend my evenings perusing the isles… yes, there is absolutely nothing to do in this city…more on that in a later chronicle…

So, I find the VDC/DVD section and find some movies that are of interest: “le declin de l’empire americain” and “super size me” I throw these 2 DVDs in my cart and continue my walk when some young girl escorts me to the cashier… I try to explain that I wish to continue my shopping and I am not successful with my explanations, so I pay for my movies and I get to put the stuff back in my cart…then I find an illustrated childrens book and put it into my cart… another young girl rushes to bring me back to the same cashier… bloody h*ll…

Now, I find some thermal underwear…, I slowly grab the box of synthetic leggings and gently deposit it into my cart… I look around and a smiling Chinese girl nods in approval.. phew, I can pay for this later… Now for some body cream… It’s difficult enough choosing a cream at Jean Coutu, try choosing a cream when you can’t even read the label… I’m afraid I’ll lather my tush with Neet or Crest… So I ask for assistance from a young girl and mimic that I want body cream - I’m sure you can picture it in your mind…anyhow, the selection isn’t brilliant… they don’t carry jumbo formats that I am used to buying… and it isn’t cheap either… One girl shows me a couple of plastic bottles with a picture of a woman’s shoulder with some words in English so that I can confirm it’s actually cream. I could chose between two bottles: one with “snake extract”, the other with “Sheep Placenta extract”… I must admit, I did buy the later choice and the cream leaves my skin soft… and yes, I did have to buy this cream separately at another cashier… arrg !

So my basket is full with junk and I need to get to the 1^st floor to pay for the rest of the items and get out if this store… one problem, there is only an escalator…I must leave my cart on the second floor and carry everything else down the stairs and to the end of the store to pay… And then, I need to pay special attention and track items I have already paid for upstairs because the cashier will double charge me!

So, now that I’m almost out the door with gazillions of small thin-walled plastic bags, I am greeted by security checks ~ just like when leaving Club Price… now where did I put those receipts…?