Thursday, 26 August 2004

I got a free coffee

I encountered a curious act of chivalry today. I was buying a coffee (actually I was getting a coffee for free but that's beside the point) at a coffee bar which hasn't actually opened yet but were training the staff to press the buttons on the machine and needed to give the coffee away. Anyway, I picked up a business-card-looking thing which was actually a loyalty card; you get it stamped every time you buy a coffee there and after you've bought 10, you get one free. I was chatting with the staff while waiting for my coffee and started playing with the card. Now, I know some magic. And when I say I know some magic, please don't infer from this that I can actually do this magic. There is this trick though, when you palm a card where you hold the card between your index and little fingers, then with your thumb, flip the card over onto the back of your middle and ring fingers so you're holding the card on the back of your hand between the outside fingers. If you do this properly you can hold your palm up to someone and they can't see you're holding the card. So I started to fidget with the card and started doing this little sleight of hand manoeuvre (great word: work of the hand). And I dropped the card onto the footpath. Now, about that act of chivalry I mentioned much earlier and you were no doubt expecting before now, instead of my brain-dead ideas about card tricks. With card on the ground, I turned around to pick it up and a guy walking past, managed to bend down before me, retrieve it from the path and hand it back to me. I thought, fine if I'm a chick to do that but I'm a bloke and I can pick it up by myself thanks; it's not like I'm going to put a ladder in my stockings or mess up my hair (and I know girls worry about messing up their hair). What was this guy thinking? Was he just being nice, friendly or was he trying to, y'know... come on to me? I was rather taken aback at the possibility so I said a very manly "Thanks, mate" as he walked off, just to let him know that if he was flirting with me that I was in no way interested, nosiree, thankyouverymuch. He did have a nice arse though.

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