It turned out to be a young woman wanting me to take a
survey on behalf of the local authority concerning the subject of their
recycling practices, so I agreed. She asked a lot of questions, many of which
were irrelevant to me because I don’t, for example, use my food waste bin. (That’s
because I never have any food waste except potato and vegetable peeling which
go in with garden waste.) But we got there in the end and she said ‘do you have
anything to ask me?’
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘something personal.’
OK.
‘Are you Asian?’
There was an almost palpable pause before her tone changed
to one you might call ‘guarded’ as she said:
Yes.
‘Thought so. It’s just that I’ve come into contact with a
number of young Asian women recently and you all have such lovely voices. It’s
a pleasure talking to you.’
It sounds awful, doesn’t it? Smooth, smarmy, a prime example
of manufactured charm. It isn’t, actually. It is true that I’ve come into
contact with several young Asian women recently, and it is true that they all
had lovely voices. It’s just that people don’t normally say so, and I do these
days.
I don’t know where this sudden descent or escalation
(however you choose to see it) into devil-may-care frankness has come from.
Maybe it has something to do with ageing and/or intimations of mortality.
If you have something
nice to say, say it now. It might be too late tomorrow.
Is that it? I don’t know, and frankly I don’t really care.
What concerns me much more is that my posts of late have been rational things
lacking oddness and dotty humour. Where has the enigmatic and often surreal
side of my nature gone? Being rational mostly bores me.
Well, I don’t know that either. I suspect it might have
something to do with me having a lot of issues lately and they’re coming on the
tail of a difficult year. I hope so. I hope Mr Loopy will rise and shine again
soon and set a few eyes rolling. I now see that as my major purpose in life.
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