Grunts 'R' Us

The grey-haired gentleman in his sixties who served me with a brace of tickets to view the Borat moving picture at the Bristol Road Cineworld this evening was a delight. He greeted me warmly, listened to my request patiently, displayed the options on the screen with bewitching clarity and, having printed my tickets, used a ball point pen to point out and reiterate the relevant gobbets of information for me. He casually used 24 Hour Clock times in his conversation – a nice touch. His parting shot was a jaunty, ‘Enjoy!’ He was great. Ten minutes earlier I had traipsed through the depressing aisles of Toys ‘R’ Us (where was the Subbuteo?!) hunting for a birthday present and a card for a nephew. The monosyllabic drones (I had the unhappy misfortune to require serving twice) who dealt with me there, avoiding eye contact, and barely summoning up enough energy to mutter, ‘En’er ya PIN num’er’ were shocking. I didn’t expect to leave the cinema feeling such pride and joy at the way I had been treated but ‘old man’ had come along at just the right moment. Compare and contrast. Compare and contrast.

The Coles are off to see that prankster Borat tomorrow night and are looking forward to an evening of merry humour.

Here are some more photographs from the Amsterdam weekend. This evening’s theme is ‘transport’. The captions read, 1. Tram (a hipster in foreground); 2. Cyclists; 3. Interesting Red Soup Delivery Vehicle.