The famous “Royale With Cheese” scene near the start of Pulp Fiction sees Vincent Vega summing up his recent trip to Amsterdam by saying “They got the same shit over there that they got here, but it’s just a little different”.
The same could be said for China, but whilst they do have the same shit here that we have in the West, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, it is sometimes vastly different from what you would expect. Take office behaviour for example.
After lunch it is pretty normal to put your head down and have a wee bit of kip! Bloody great idea, as it gives me time to update the blog, but there is a guy 2 desks down snoring 10 to the dozen, I can still hear him over another guy talking too loudly on the phone!
The Chinese, myself included are not a particularly hirsute race of people, however every day I see the bloke 2 desks back whip out the trusty Remington Microshave and give the old boatrace a once over. I usually perform my ablutions at home in the comfort and privacy of my own bathroom, but maybe I am not as an effective multi tasker as “shaver man”.
Cutting your nails at your desk is also pretty much par for the course, especially if you can manage to have them pinging off in all directions, whilst making a lame effort to clean up and scrape your leavings into the nearest bin.
Lastly, the thing that tells me I am now starting to get used to being here is the spitting, often I’ll hear someone vacuuming one up from the depths of their nether regions, the wet bang sound of the launch, followed by the wet slap as it hits the ground…….and now I dont even dry reach!
