The * Red * Mist

I've posted on this topic before, but lately I've noticed my normal emotional state has become 'slightly angry' and its getting easier and easier for me to see the 'red mist' in all kinds of situations.

I wake up and already feel angry. If the wrong lift comes first in the morning, if the staff in the Lobby open the door too slowly, if anyone cuts me off or walks too slowly on the street, if people leave gaps when they queue for a minibus so that the end of the queue has to trail out further into the street, when the club house staff, where I live, aren't polite, when people block the aisle with their shopping trolley, when people allow their kids to disturb others all send my blood pressure up. . (now its 90 over 140, with a resting pulse of 40 - 50 bpm)

Then there's work, people inventing next day deadlines that didn't exist before, people expecting me to understand Chinese circulars and memo's, having to sit through 4 hour meetings in the evening in Chinese. Working with colleagues who are constantly stressed too (All the staff are in small prayer groups that meet once a week or so and every time my group meets people are in tears) Only having junk food available at work, and then there are some of the mad things the students do . . . and the actual pressure of the work itself.

Then there's the complexity of the offers and deals you have to cope with when trying to buy something as simple as a meal. . . (this is a slight exaggeration)

Assistant: 'If two people buy the tea-set before 12 (without lemon tea)and bring your ID cards and a voucher then both countersign and finish your meal within 45 minutes then for the next 3 visits in October you can have a two percent discount on any dessert that doesn't include chocolate.'

Gwei Lo Thomas: 'Please, I am just a simple Englishman, I just want a cup of coffee.'

Assistant: 'Oh right, you want coffee? will that be a Arabic, Brazillian, Late, ground coffee, fruit coffee , Mocha, iced, espresso, cappucino, filtered, instant, this blend, that blend . . . you know if you buy two coffees before 6pm and drink them on your head while singing 'I'm a little tea-pot', you can get a stamp to stink on your bum, when you get 5 million stamps you will be elligable for a prize draw.'.

Gwei Lo Thomas: 'I see, um. . . ok, then. . . may I have a glass of water please'

Assistant: 'No water, water is free'

Gwei Lo Thomas: 'Oh. . . . umm so do you have water?'

Assistant: 'no water, water is free'

Gwei Lo Thomas: ' So do you have some water, that is free, that you can give to me?'

Assistant: ' Yes, do you want still, sparkling, Spring water, distilled, mineral, flavoured, fortified, Perrier, Hot, warm, cold, very cold, quite warm, hot with a little warm bit near the top, room temperature, body temperature, . . . '

Gwei Lo Thomas: ' . . . . . . ok then. . . . . I'd like a blend of waters drawn from the icey crusts of the moons that orbit Jupiter, filtered through a thousand layers of differnt coloured silks, evaporated and recondensed as snow over the Alps please'

Assistant: ' With ice and lemon?'

Gwei Lo Thomas: ' Gooosfrabaaaahhh.

But I can take it. I won't retire here thats for sure, but I still like the fight at the moment. . . God bless Hong Kong and stop me from losing my rag every day. Amen.