Thursday, October 27, 2005

Going to work

Its a simple route to work every morning: couple of blocks to the M1 and then about 5 minutes of hurtling down the highway. Then another 10 mintutes down Glenhove and into the underground parking lot. Now this was never going to be a post about my route to work (hoping you'd realised that).
I stopped at the Shell nearest my house this morning and got shown to a pump by one of the attendants. I've been helped by him before. Turns out he's mute you see. The last time he helped me, I hardly realised this, but this morning was a different beast altogether.
I was late. I'd overslept and when I'm late I get full of crap. He showed me where to park and asked me how much petrol I wanted. He communicates with hand signals - five fingers = R50, etc. I suddenly found myself getting angry at him because this was taking so long. But while sitting there waiting, I realised that I simply have no right to be so selfish.
What the hell was I thinking? To watch him meticulously going through all the steps: checking the fuel cap, water, oil, pumping tyres, etc, I realised that here was someone who was trying his hardest and doing a damn good job. This job obviously meant a better life for him and he was earning a living from it. As some sort of attempt at self-absolution, I gave him a decent tip (was that called for? did it mean anything? was i just thinking about myself in this situation?). So that was this morning's epiphany. Not the best bit of musing, but hopefully you get what I'm saying.

Life's quite hectic at the moment. Lots of loose ends and stuff going on. Be posting more regularly from now on, now that I'm in a routine. Got something big coming up soon... But hey, don't I always say that?

What made my day today: H20's new single on Yfm this morning. :)