Your Initial Wha
28-10-2010Yesterday was the birthday of the lady friend. A glorious time for myself because it meant X number of years ago she was born. See what I did there? I didn't mention how old she was, because that would be poor form. Plus it makes her cry to realise her best years are behind her.
Woops.....
Anyway, as such events usually require presents and gifts of some sort I went into the Dublin's Fair(ly dumb) City at the weekend to pick up some bits and bobs.
The idea I had for a present was fairly simple. Herself had said a while back that she had no necklaces and would like one with the first letter of her name on it. Something to wear every day sort of thing. I figured why not pick up a necklace like this?
Now, I know the city fairly well. I had most of the big Jewellery Shops checked within an hour and even a few side street ones that folk don't know about. The search was proving fruitless, because everywhere I went they either had gaudy hideous objects that belonged in Mr. T's personal collection or something cheap and flimsy that was in no way worth its cost.
Like most things sold in Ireland, but that's a different rant
Long story short, I found one that was perfect and made the purchase quickly. It lacked the letter pendant, but as I had learned such an object didn't actually exist in the material I was looking for. Plus they had apparently 'gone out of style'.
Being a huge style guru I had no idea what that phrase meant.
But my search had provided me with a glimpse into just how dumb (see why I said it earlier?) sales staff in some shops can me.
I won't name the chain that this happened in, because that isn't fair, but it was a fairly well known chain of shops.
I strolled into the store and had a look around the displays. Nothing caught my eye and a friendly sales girl (no more than twenty) came up to me.
"Can I help, sir?"
It sadness me a little that I get called 'sir' these days, but I figured I wouldn't burden her with my troubles.
"Yes, if you would that would be great. I am looking for a necklace for my girlfriend's birthday."
"Oh how nice, anything particular in mind?" she says, walking over to a cabinet of different necklaces.
"Indeed I have. Do you have any with initials on them."
"Initial whats?" she asked, turning around to look at me.
"Yea, an initial. As in a pendant that is in the shape of an initial."
She shrugged.
"An initial what though? What do you initially want the pendant to be. A star?"
At this point I was a little confused. Either there was some hilarious mix up here in which I was thinking that she had no idea what the word 'initial' meant while she was asking me what initial was I looking for. I figured to end the madness I would just ask.
"Yea, I want one with a 'K' on it, if you have any."
This single sentence cleared everything up. Not only did she now know what I wanted, she also had just learned a new word.
"Oh a letter, why didn't you say that? What's an initial?"
So, it would seem, that the education system in Ireland has failed somebody once again. All I could do was stare blankly at her as I tried to figure out how this woman filled in forms. Maybe the text had been changed from "Initial here:" to "Put the first letter of your name and surname here, moron:".
And she didn't even have any necklaces with letters on them in the end. Useless bint!
Blue_jester