Vicious Sales Tactics

The first 2 days of the long wet weekend were spent as a couch potato, often armed with mugs of fab Davidoff coffee or Twinnings earl grey, and many packets of munchies which ranged from mini-pretzels to M&S shortbreads, and and ...... those wonderful drooly Milka chocolates! It was one of those weekends whereby the barmy weather overwhelmed my mostly cheerie moods and had me down to semi-hibernating in front of the idiot box.

Thus, I quickly grabbed the opportunity to drag my butt off the couch at the prospect of having a delectable Raya Haji Monday brunch with a buddy. Not wanting to just have food and then diving back unto the couch, I readily jumped to his invitation for a shopping spree.

It was well into the late afternoon when we finally parted ways. I guessed that by then, my now cheeried mood and love for shopping had me into hyper-mode, jumping into my car once again and making my way to the Mall. Since I chose to live close to the Mall of Too Many People, I had to contend with long lines everywhere. From the check stand at the inhouse grocers (so much for the tagline, Three's a Crowd), to the linear parabolic dishes snaking out on the conveyor-belt at the sushi outlet, we urbanites learn to wait. And wait we must. And I do.

Today, however, I reached the demarcation between patience and insanity.

At least while I'm waiting in line at the grocery, at KFC, or at Secret Recipe, my thoughts are my own. Packaging my impatience into productivity, my brain can travel many pathways while standing in line. Such daydreaming has yielded a host of creative ideas like painting my next acrylic piece, adding an improved final touch to my music composition, and where to find that special person! ^_^

This morning, I placed a call. Since not only do I live near to the Mall of Too Many People but also near a vet of Too Many Clients, my call was placed on hold. A nasally person came onto the line, another victim of the barmy wet weather?, to whom I quickly discovered after a few short sentences that it had nothing to do with the weather, but her being unnaturally loaded with testosterone and who is also tone deaf. A wretched group of backup musicians whom I 've heard in the Mall of Too Many People and also in elevators, joined her soon after.

The tape played on and on; my thoughts were no longer my own. I hung up.

To my utter surprise, my handphone yelled almost as immediately as I hung up. It was the same husky voice, apologizing for the delay in responding to my earlier call. Ahhh, I thought to my surprised self, courtesy still exists. But then, a grisly tale unfolded as she went into a more detailed description about vaccination against heartworm, fleas and ticks. Should my furried pets not receive their heartworm chunks? The knarly, vicious pieces of infectious spaghettis that will weave and wind themselves around their rapidly-beating hearts; eventually, my pets would die a painful death, that is, if the ticks and fleas do not feast on them first. I hung up, once again, but this time in disgust, at her morbid way of marketing her services.

Please let our thoughts be of our own.

Please go back to symphony music.

Better yet, please do not use scare tactics to force a sale!