Yesterday, at about 16h30, acknowledging that my fingers needed a break from an XHTML marathon, I peeled myself off my chair, tumbled out of the office and around to the Coles express around the corner for a bar of chocolate, with additional plans to get hold of some coffee a little further down the street. The cashier was one I haven't met before — a tall pretty Asian girl who was particularly cheerful — in contrast to my tired, wrung-out, look-what-the-cat-dragged-in disposure. I suppose this discrepancy provided the perfect setting for slightly odd conversations. Though in this instance, we began quite normally ...
"How are you doing?" she chirruped.
"Oh, not too bad." I tried to speak properly and not moan. It was difficult. It seemed as if I hadn't moved my mouth for several hours and my eyes had trouble focusing.
"Finished, for the day?"
"Just on a break."
"Still going then?"
"Yeah, I'll probably be at it for another couple of hours. Yourself?"
"I finish at 7 tonight, but I've only been here since 1 o'clock."
"That's not too bad. I've been in since about 9."
"People usually look really tired at this hour."
I smiled. Or tried to. "So you're used to zombies walking through the door at 4 o'clock?"
"Oh really?"
I blinked. What did she ...? Ahh, parse error. The exception handling kicked in and I said, "Yes, really." Politely muttering some pleasantry, I paid for the chocolate bar (something new, exotic and way too sweet), and we bade each other a good afternoon.
Posted by sniffles at July 28, 2004 10:57 PM