With a bang (and a slight dent)

I wished a total stranger Happy New Year in Man­darin, even though he had just crashed into the front pas­sen­ger door of my car right after he rode his bicy­cle on the pave­ment against the flow of traf­fic that was on the road out­side the entrance to my apart­ment blocks.

In response, he said, “対不起対不起対不起対不起新年快乐対不起対不起対不起対不起対不起対不起対不起” in a North­ern Chi­nese accent.

He looked very shaken but was oth­er­wise unhurt, thank goodness.

At the petrol sta­tion where I let the pump atten­dant fill the tank to 48 point some­thing litres and exactly $100, with him look­ing very proud at his New Year’s achieve­ment, the cashier very sleep­ily said, “Pum One? Alto­gether $95 after dis­count”, after which, she attempted to foist some Delifrance prod­ucts on me, but for a few long sec­onds, for­got how to per­form her sales pitch in Eng­lish, leav­ing her right hand out­stretched and point­ing silently at the sundry pas­tries. Only when her hand came down did she realise she could also try in Man­darin, but I cut her off with a “No thank you” before she fin­ished say­ing “要不要买吃的东西？” in a Malaysian accent.

In the weeks lead­ing to the New Year, Naomi and I had been hear­ing about how 2008 would bear not so good news regard­ing the econ­omy. Prices would con­tinue to rise, and things would be tight. Then we saw that the even the pound cakes at the neigh­bour­hood cake shop had been light­ened. They’re now maybe 3/4 pound or so: