Bad Earthling, Bad!

Happy Earth Day, Mother Earth!

Today is Earth Day and I think days like this should be celebrated by us Earthlings on a much grander scale. What could be more important than preserving our home?

But before I go around judging everybody, I have to confess that I wasn't exactly a Good Earthling today.

Even though my mum told me on the phone this morning about today, I promptly forgot about it 5 minutes later.

In my 'unaware' state of mind, I actually contributed to the demise of the planet at - of all places - Shoprite in Slipway.

In my defense, it was probably brought on by the long, tediously slow, queue at the one checkout counter that was in operation. The darn luku (power) was out again! I was just there to buy 3 miserable lemons but ended up standing there for a good long while.

Since I knew I was stuck, I tried to distract myself from going loony by focusing on something other than the wait. I ended up fixated on the inordinately large swarm of flies that were mysteriously lounging about inside the store.

Shoprite isn't usually covered in flies so I suppose it must have been the smell of meat going bad although I couldn't detect anything rotten in the air. I'm presuming that flies have a more acute sense for spoiled food (I think I'll look this up) so maybe they caught some kind of low-level scent that I didn't pick up. Either way, if anything goes rotten/sour at Shoprite, it's all Tanesco's fault. I mean, how hard can it be for a power company to maintain 24-hour electricity? That's their job function. It's not like they've got to plan weddings and keep the luku going for goodness sake!

Anyway, by the time I finished with this ridiculous train of thought, I found myself at the front of the queue. Unfortunately - I don't know if it was from the heat or plain lack of enthusiasm- the cashier took longer to ring up three lemons than it would take Britney Spears to get a degree in Nuclear Physics.

I stood there trying not to say anything but then she had to go and stuff the lemons in an eensy-weensy plastic bag that was clearly too small and had no handles ( how did she think I was going to carry it...with my teeth?).

Without thinking, I asked for a different bag and it was one that was much too large. It was only when I got into my car that it dawned upon me: I shouldn't have exchanged a little plastic bag for a big one - I shouldn't have taken a bag at all especially since there were only 3 lemons to carry! I felt really bad about that.

Sigh! This is what happens when I focus on long queues, slow cashiers and flies instead of something more important like Planet Earth. To make up for my behaviour, I'll watch less TV for the next couple of days and save some electricity (although knowing Tanesco, the luku will be out and I'll end up doing that anyway!)