Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

The Big Burberry Backfire

Yesterday, I was stuck on window seat on the plane. This meant that I had very little space to move about in. I usually get aisle seats, but since I had booked this flight at the eleventh hour - all they could get me was this lousy window seat.

As I watched the clouds go by in the big blue sky, I had plenty to think about through the duration of the flight.

Before taking off, I was walking around the airport doing some shopping when somebody yelled my name. Dressed to the nines was my ex-colleague from my gahmen days. She had left a year before to join another gahmen body, and her latest namecard showed that she had moved up in the world.

We caught up and since we were both flying to China, we had the same embarkation gate. As we walked in that direction, we passed by a Burberry store and she suddenly decided to buy a Burberry scarf on impulse.

I was thinking, wtf?

So anyway, I had like 10 mins to get to my gate, so my impatience was apparent.

She quickly chose a scarf and went to pay.

Credit card declined. She only had that one Visa card.

She then decided to pay in Renminbi. Unfortunately, she didnt have enough cash.

So in the end, she paid in a mixture of Renminbi and Singapore Dollars notes.

I am not sure, if it was ironic or crazy. Buying a Burberry scarf and using up all your foreign denomination and cash. How on earth are you going to fly to a foreign country alone, with no cash and a declined credit card?

My guess: she wanted to ‘impress me’ for reasons known only to herself. And it backfired on her.

And it’s ironic for me. Well traveled, educated overseas and born with a silverspoon in her mouth, she seemed so cosmopolitan to me in the past. The only thing we had in common was that we were both Peranakan Chinese.

Looking out of the airplane window, I tried to stick my head into the clouds. What a big boy I am now.

I think she wanted u to pay for her.

She’s lucky it’s only Burberry … If it had been an Hermes store, she’d have had to give a dozen blowjobs to make up for the difference.

i agree. i think she wanted you to pay for the scarf. must have been quite embarrassing for her. lol!