IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TEA AND COOKIES!

Lunch by myself again today.
The coffee was pretty darn awful, and I probably should not have arrived when the staff wanted to eat. Requesting a bowl of this and a piece of that just when the woman behind the counter was spearing a nice juicy morsel for herself seemed interfering. Don't get between a woman and her food!

Later after everyone had finished eating, the mood was much much brighter. If you want a woman to be happy, fill her up. Doing so works for men too.
In consequence of her return to happiness, the counter woman didn't snarl at the two big pink people who come in and squawked unintelligibly.

"Dyuhsillbiyah?!?"

Pause for fifteen seconds.

"Biyah, dyav biyahiyah?"

Total blankness. After a few more seconds of non-communication, the couple left to find their suds elsewhere. Briefly I thought of informing them that walking around with an open container of alcohol would get them in trouble with the police, and would make a frightful impression on the locals. But by that time they were outside, and the counter woman cheerfully asked me: 「佢話乜嘢?」

Their accents had been so thick that even native speakers would have been hard-pressed to decipher their animal-like yelping.


佢問: 「你賣啤酒呀?」。你知啊，

有啲澳洲人，成日都想飲啤酒... 。

[He asked: "do you sell beer?" ......  You know, there are some Australians, all day long they just wanna chug ...... ]


Explaining that at the time would have been fairly useless, as there was not a drop of beer on the premises.
Soft drinks, yes. But Australians don't take softdrinks, not after breakfast.

Despite the mild entertainment presented by travelling foreign alcoholics in Chinatown, lunch was not engaging. Random hubbub is comforting, yes, and there are times when I enjoy observing people, and listening in on conversations that don't involve me. But it's far too impersonal, and it lacks the zest of a one on one exchange of feelings and opinions.
Plus it involves lousy coffee. That's always a downer.


WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO?

I would have preferred to stay at home, occasionally going into the kitchen for a snackipoo.
But without some other person to do it with, that would have been empty.
If there's no one else, what's the point of tea and cookies?
Tea and cookies are just the preamble.

Bright sunny day, windows open, quiet apartment.
Smooth wooden surfaces, the sound of water.
Rising steam, and a warm sudsy bath.

I need a spark of excitement.

The Australians probably did eventually find beer, which works for them.
Lager doesn't do anything at all for me.
Tea and cookies.


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