| Two Things, One Of Which Is Nice. |
| Written by Brendon Green |
| Tuesday, 24 November 2009 06:05 |
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This week, I was stopped outside of a church by a group of deaf and mute orphans asking for money. Or at least they claimed to be deaf and mute orphans. One of the negative effects I have found living in a big city, is you essentially stop believing people. That may be an overly dramatic way of putting it, but when you’re confronted by a deaf and mute orphan and your immediate reaction is scepticism, it makes you think. I’m pretty sure there are deaf and mute orphans out there, but I am equally pretty sure there are people who pretend to be deaf and mute orphans to make money. Either way it’s tragic. The amount of homeless people and people asking for money is, for better or worse; desensitising. As are the stories you hear from your friends, about friends of friends. For example the old homeless lady who took a break from being poor and feeble on the street to call up her friends on her fancy cell phone to organise drinks (as my friend Dave Wiggins would say: well it’s not like she’s going to have a home phone is it?). And that’s just a taste of it. You get warned about all sorts of scams; the ring scam; the string scam; the baby throwing scam. And now, potentially, the fake deaf and mute orphan scam. Oh the joys of big city life, all this trickery and a Starbucks on every corner. (Is it still cool to hate on Starbucks? They’re still evil right? Damn good caramel macchiato though.) I don’t want to go on about this, so I will leave it there. I don’t think I’m in danger of becoming a hardened, insensitive shell of a man (well, anymore than I already am), but if I do succumb to all encompassing cynicism, feel free to give me a slap next time you see me. Um, alright, sorry about that. It’s not the nicest thing to think about. Ok, so a nice thing to end on. Well, last night I had delicious cannelloni for dinner. Oh, and carrot sticks with an amazing dip; the packaging was all in Hebrew, but it had pictures of lemon and maybe a courgette on it, and I think it was kosher (if kosher means delicious, then it was super kosher). And then for dessert I got a big slab of chocolate brownie from the bakery, heated it up and put a whole lot of chocolate mousse on top. It was incredible and prevented me from sleeping for ages! All in all a good nights eating. So, you know; pros and cons, gutters and strikes. |
