The other day, my son and I went for a walk to the local 7-11 as it was a hot day and I’d promised him a slurpee earlier that morning. Once there, he immediately went for the small cup and filled it right to the brim (Pepsi). His eyes then lit up as he spotted the open box of straws, containing every colour of slurpee straws currently available. I brought the box down to him so he could make his pick and after a quick scan, he picked a green straw. I poured my own Pepsi slurpee and motioning to the box I asked him “So which colour straw should I pick?”. He thought about it for moment and said “Yellow!”. “How about pink?” I said. “Pink is for girls!” he said assertively. A teenage girl near us who was also pouring a slurpee, looked and snickered at us. “Who told you pink is for girls?” I said. “I just know.” he said. He’s 5 1/2 years old and like everything else, he somehow managed to pick this up when we weren’t looking. With that, I picked up 2 pink slurpee straws and put them in my slurpee and we walked up to the counter. There, there were 6 other teenage girls at the counter - all of whom had slurpees, each with a pink slurpee straw. I then looked behind me to the girl who snickered at us by the slurpee machine - she had a green straw…. How very interesting.

For the record, for many years now I’ve always put 2 pink slurpee straws in my slurpees. I’m not sure how or why , but at this point I figure it’s just bad karma if I were to stop now!

The other night, my wife made a huge batch of shepherds pie, and out went another plastic HP Sauce bottle into the recycling bin!

Last week I discovered that Kraftwerk had released their 2004 tour on a live 4 LP box set while I was browsing for used LPs at a local used music store. I reached for the box set and then discovered the $62.95 price tag on it. I love Kraftwerk, but $62.95 was too much…wasn’t it? I considered it but then put it back on the shelf, only to have a couple come into the store seconds later and spot it on the wall. The girl reached for it and as she held it in her hands I instantly regretted my decision to put it back. To my relief she sighed and said to her boyfriend “I wish I still had a turntable.” - and placed the album back on the shelf. I figured, that’d probably be a common response and with hesitation - I left the store in order to give myself a day or two to think about it.

The next day, I’m back at the used music store. Sure enough, it was still there. Sure I had made the right decision, I picked up the box set and walked straight across the aisle and placed it down on the counter. To my right, a man in his 20’s was sorting out some business with someone behind the counter. The man turned and looked at me. He had a big grin on his face and he was nodding - knowingly likes. Not sure why he was doing this, I motioned at the box set and said “Awesome stuff…can’t beat it!”. He was still grinning at me.

Just then, a man came to the till to ring up the sale. As he processed the sale, the man beside me slid over a CD package over to me and said “If you like them…you’ll like us!”. I picked up the CD and flipped it over in my hand and said “your band is all electronic is it?”. Still grinning and nodding he said “we’re…..influenced by them.” “Yeah whatever” I thought and put down the CD and slid it back to him. What was with the grinning & nodding anyway? It was starting to freak me out. By that time, the man ringing up my purchase had placed the box set into a bag. Another employee came over and opened up the bag to have a look inside. Spotting what I was buying, he says to me “Good for you!!”. LOL “Good for you”?? I’m being congratulated for buying Kraftwerk? I look over, and sure enough mr grinning & nodding is still…..grinning…and nodding. “Thanks” I said “I can hardly wait for the live DVD as well!”. “You’re not the only one!” said the employee. Am I in the right shop? Afterall, this is the place that always plays hideous classic rock every time I go there. I’ve always had a wee tinge of embarrasment buying my usual favourites there…now they’ve rolled out the red carpet! Weird.

I won’t soon forget buying this album, that’s for sure. And with Kraftwerk being what they are - it was worth every penny.

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