The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

When Common Sense Is Ignored …

There were a few of things at ‘the conference’ that left their mark on me …

First up was this wonderfully and carefully crafted food description at the restaurant buffet …

Oooooooh, I bet that makes you salivate doesn’t it? 

And you have to admire the brave use of the word ‘item’ don’t you!

While locals couldn’t shove the ‘Pork Item’ down their throat fast enough … I am sure most of you won’t be too surprised to learn most of the Westerners in the room [including me] carefully avoided the thing like the plague.

Though no one came out and said it, I am sure it was because we were worried it would turn out to be pig cock or something equally revolting! Ha!

Not that pig cock would stop many local Asians from eating it.

Oh no – out here there’s a real ‘waste not, want not’ mentality regarding food … and if any of you are going to Russell’s “Interesting Conference” you will see a short film I’ve cobbled together to explain what it’s all about.

Look at me … “short film” … the reality is it’s a badly edited, 3 minute clip of me running around food courts like a total tool! Haha!

And if eating EVERYTHING of an animal is an Asian trait, then it seems giving things crappy, rational names must be a Singapore ‘thang‘. 

OK … the second thing from the conference that left its mark on me were the mints.

Yes … the mints.

Not because the conference was that bad [as I said, it was better than I was expecting, but still had a lot to be desired] but because the mints were these …

Yes, Fox’s mints.

Do you remember them?

You’d probably have to be from the UK and over 30 … but the ads were iconic, featuring a Polar Bear and a wily old fox.

The sweets weren’t particularly great – and when they created ‘Fruited Fox’s Mints’ there was national outrage – but seeing these brought back the same rush of happy emotions as I got when I scoffed those Jammy Donuts in Thailand.

The fact some people truly believe emotions aren’t as powerful as rational facts in influencing purchase/association, astounds me … but then maybe these poor people come from a land [and a time] where individual thought and opinion was frowned upon and you simply did as you were told, despite every fibre in your body screaming you to do otherwise.

The brain is a powerful instrument … the problem is many of us are not using it nearly enough … which funnily enough, I’ll be talking about tomorrow!

12 Comments so far
Leave a comment