The world according to Sven-S. Porst
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I’ve just been shopping. And it goes without saying that I didn’t enjoy it that much. Not the shopping, i.e. the acquisition of things, particularly food, per se is what causes the most distress but rather the whole environment with a crowded Saturday noon city centre and the quality of service on Germany are what make this miserable. What happened, included:
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Me arriving at the post office at 13:00 with one of their employees smiling sending me out again, saying that they’re closed. Saturday lunch time… a good time for a ‘service’ company to start their weekend. OMFG.
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Strangely, the little shop with the presumably fresh chicken parts still being open although I always thought they were closing early. Hooray.
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Then, a few minutes later in the supermarket which should be open until 18:00 or 20:00, there already being that distinctive chlorine smell at the meat counter that they have every Saturday. I once asked where the horrid smell is coming from and they told me people are cleaning in the back. Yikes! You’re trying to sell food there.
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Of course my favourite Asian food store didn’t disappoint, being open and helpful as ever. Their shop is ten years old this week, so there were ten per cent discounts and deep fried Asian snacks as well. Yum! Even though they are quite greasy, Asian grease usually tastes better than Western grease. Perhaps because they still bother to add some vegetables instead of chemicals?
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Next, on to the record store. Where I had to suffer many hard questions about what to buy. I had intended to buy the new Element of Crime album. They’re a great band – at least since they started singing in German – with some of the best lyrics around, and I’ve been listening to their music for a decade or so now. But I was put off by the record, a single LP, costing €18. According to the guy in the store, their label, Universal, are the suckers causing this by charging the small stores a lot of money compared to other German labels, the records of which sell for €14 or so. I got Múm’s rereleased Yesterday was dramatic, today is OK album in the end.
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After picking up another greasy snack from the Asia store, and arriving home I saw that the tickets for Patrick Wolf’s Halloween gig in London had arrived. Amusingly it was cheaper to have those tickets shipped to Germany than having them delivered within the UK.
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To end on a bitter note, I need to mention that the geniuses at Ryanair cancelled my flight back home after that excursion to England. And they re-booked me on a later one which arrives late at night and far from home. Omph.
October 8, 2005, 15:33