As I skipped breakfast this morning (I did not rise out of bed until 3pm) I decided to skip the chores of cooking a meal and head out to my my local pub for a late afternoon lunch. When I say local pub I only have been there a handful of times but it is the closest and most affordable.
As I ordered a pint of mouth watering casked local ale and scanned my eyes over the menu I noticed that the bar was somewhat quiet. In fact there was hardly a soul in the place, albeit for the husband and wide couple that are always there yet never seem to talk to one another. I ordered a Swiss Burger with extra salad and took my place on the comfortable leather seats that are usually so popular there is a waiting list.
As my food was waiting I picked up the paper to read about the latest in the US Presidential elections and the credit crunch that seems to dominate our lives these days, my concentration was shattered by something that I can only be described as a rant. I looked casually to my right and saw a rather well dressed English gentleman, must have been in his late 60’s, very dapper, green tweed jacket, flat peaked cloth cap, shiny shoes and a walking stick. As I tried to ignore his conversation it became apparent that in the emptiness of the pub there was no background noise to latch on to except the dull tones of his voice.
To the left of him were two rather attractive oriental girls, I am guessing they were from Malaysia or Singapore, they are definately not Japanese or Chinese. One of them kept nodding like one of those dogs that you see in the back of car windows and the other just listened to this old English gent intently.
Oblivious to my intent listening the gent began to rant about the state of the world but then he said something that made my food wait, I was having none of it. He started ranting about how great the British Empire was and that the world would not be any kind of place without us, but ended with “And if it were not for us you two would still be picking rice in fields!”, I casually moved closer, putting my empty change in the fruit machine listening more intently than before. After a few minutes I realised that he was not aiming for a racist torrent of abuse but rather just he was a sad old man stuck in his ways. After returning to my seat he then began to go on about how the world is a better place with old fashioned techniques.
As he and his two oriental companions were ready to leave he came over to me and whispered in my ear “I paid for them”.
I was somewhat stunned but then realised you cannot educate the opinionated