Since Mrs. C had borrowed the car, I was reduced to the two hour drudgery of using the bus system to-and-fro from Sala to Nitra and back again in order to get to work. Getting there was no problem, but I didn't quite have enough change in order get back home. So I had to take some money out of the ATM and then I had this sudden vision which sort of went like this:
Gives 10 euro note to bus driver.
Bus driver looks at me blankly.
Bus Driver: [Says something very fast and very incomprehensible in Slovak, but is probably a 'no']
Bus driver looks at me blankly.
Bus Driver: [Says something very fast and very incomprehensible in Slovak, but is probably a 'no']
JC: Okay. I'll just sort of.. sort of go away then, shall I?
I leave the bus, slightly humiliated.
Apparently this doesn't usually happen (the bus driver saying no, not me having the visions, which happens from a rather over-active imagination), but I thought it was better not to chance it and anyway, I was hungry. So, lo and behold, I went henceforth unto the supermarket which happened to be right next to the bus station. I grabbed some bargain pop and some bargain bread, and went straight to the counter, which happened to contain a bargain Goth at the till.
I noticed the big, heavy, ostentatious cross she had draped around her neck. From this, I was wise enough to not assume that she was a Catholic, but just someone who liked tacky jewellery. But that's okay. I'm sure there is therapy along the line somewhere, probably reaching into childhood.
She scans the items, having slight trouble with the bread and then throws both items down the chute in the quick, efficient manner as described in Scribbling #1. She told me how much it was, and I handed her the ten euro bill. Or at least I tried to. Shaking her head adamantly, she said that she couldn't take anything that large. I was slightly shocked by this, as it was ten euros, not a hundred, which would have been silly anyway in order to buy two items of bargain food. I stood there with a look of disbelief, or at least I hoped it was disbelief and not a case of 'look at me, standing here holding a ten euro note in one hand and a bewildered expression in my face and wondering how all of society is crumbling around me due to my need to get change for a bus ticket because of a daydream that I had ten minutes previously'.
This happened next:
Shop Assistant: Pffft!!
(Snatches the money out of my hand, counts out the exact change out of the till, dumps it in my hand)
JC: Thankyou, you're a credit to your culture.
(Hurriedly exits stage left with everything in hand)
Pause.
Shop Assistant: Pffft!!
What happened here is that shop assistants don't have to be nice. Everyone needs groceries and everyone needs petrol, so most people behind the till give the same, stony 'how dare you enter this shop and give me work to do, random stranger' expression.
Go to a mobile phone shop such as O2, and they all say good day to you all at once, because you don't need to be there, there are other shops that sell phones. If they are nice to you, then there is more chance that the customer will come back. We are social, relational creatures, even introverts like me. I like it when I get good, polite service, and Slovakia seems to be warming up to that fact as well. It is still in the baby step stage, but there is still hope for the future.
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