Doing good

I was having lunch as I was flicking through the Big Picture and then I was reading the news about the earthquake in Haiti. What the hell was I doing? Sitting at my desk checking whether or not the case citations were correct in a book that had already been published. How is this going to change the world when there are people who have no place to go and no where to sleep. It's depressing. There should be something in every country like a code red where people should just drop everything to help people who have just suffered from a natural disaster. I know. There are some countries where there is a 'disaster' every day.

When I went to the kitchen to throw out my lunch trash, the bulletin board caught my eye and it was a letter from our "social secretary" about how much money the company had raised for a Red Cross event. I got back to my desk and sent her an email to ask - Is there going to be an appeal for the Haitians? I got a response - yes there will be. She's going to look into it. Hooray! You will note I also pasted some stuff on facebook and a friend of mine in Australia posted up a where to donate money thing straight after my post. I'm glad I was able to do dsomething very small, from my desk and went back to reading my cases.

Legal tender
In a attempt to support small local businesses (rather than franchises), I have been buying buns in the morning from a Hong Kong style cafe where the waiters will dress in white jacket uniforms in Spring Garden Lane. It also requires me to line up, something I don't mind doing if there is food involved. The women who run it there are like the soup nazi. If you're not ready with your money or you haven't moved up a spot after making your order, you get growled at. I couldn't read the sign in Chinese but apparently they raised their buns up by 50 cents. I already had the exact change worked out when I was waiting in line so when the lady said $14 instead of $13.50 for a pineapple bun and hot tea I was short. I reached into my wallet and there was exactly 50 cents made up of a 10 cent and two 20 cent coins. I handed it over. Then I got yelled at. "We don't accept 10 cents an 20 cent coins, but I'll let it go this time!" WTF. I wanted to say it is illegal not to accept legal tender except I would run the risk of being blacklisted. I'm telling you, the buns are so fresh, they are still hot when they hand it over to you. In protest, I didn't get buns for a week and then on Monday, I caved and lined up again. I also saw the sign in Chinese that says they don't accept 10 and 20 cent coins. It's so small no one would even notice it.

Crap! I just read this about the bun "It is high in calorific value (high in carbohydrates, saturated fats and cholesterol), it has been declared one of the top 10 most harmful snack foods in Hong Kong." No wonder it tastes so good. I will get a picture of the line up and cafe tomorrow. Stay tuned.

The Golden Phoenix Cafe