Have you ever gotten so angry that you feel your temperature rise, you start to stammer and shake like a leaf? Well, that happened to me today. I felt like I was about to explode and perhaps make the Guinness Book of Records as the first human time bomb!

Now, this might not be a big deal to many of you; but for me, with a typical phlegmatic personality; it is a big deal! Definitely unheard of, no psychology book on character traits ever mentions the quick temper of a phlegmatic. Why? Well, because it's pretty much non existant!

So, here am I this morning at the post office in town trying to post a CD to my older brother. I purchased a padded envelope but due to its rectangular nature and my square shaped CD, it only filled about 2/3 of the envelope. In order to make the package more secure, I folded the extra third over and stuck it tight with the adhesive side of the envelope and cellotape for added security.

With my package firmly closed and addressed neatly I took it to the lady at the counter for her to process it. I cheerfully greeted her with a smile and hearty 'good afternoon' and slipped her my parcel. Without even a smile in return, the lady (who didn't  even acknowledge my greeting) looks up at me and in the rudest voice said (in Twi-local language);

'Who told you to seal the envelope like that?'

Me, very surprised replied (in English - for some reason when I am pissed I speak only English - lol) saying;

'What do you mean, sealed it like how?'.

Then she said;

'Who told you to seal the envelope with cellotape'.

At this point, I stood shocked. I just couldn't understand why she was talking to me like that. What did I ever do to her?  - I am starting to get really pissed - I spoke back in an equally rude and sarcastic voice;

'How was I supposed to know there were particular rules for the way envelopes should be sealed'.

She went off again accusing me like I was some criminal. I looked at her and said sternly:

'Okay, I didn't know - now I know, so next time I'll know how to deal with it'.

Then -and this is the killer- she looks at me and smirks;

'Now you're talking'.

Now, that last statement was the last straw. Boy oh boy, that did my head in! I snatched my parcel from her and walked away to another lady; determined that if I got similar treatment from her I would just leave. This second lady however was very pleasant. She took the envelope and kindly told me that they needed to see what was inside before sealing it, so she would have to open up. I was like;

'Oh, ok. I didn't know that'.

She then sorted everything out for me and directed me to where I needed to drop it. At that point I told her what happened with the other lady and told her to teach her decent manners. However, I wasn't satisfied. My blood was still boiling for more action. So I went back to the first lady and told her;

'Next time learn how to talk to your customers. You can go to the other lady for lessons'.

She looks at me and says;

'What's your problem, what did i say wrong?'.

I said;

'You talked to me rudely! There is no sign anywhere in this building instructing customers on how to go about sending parcels, so you need to be patient and explain the procedure to the customer, in a pleasant manner. Not shout at them like you did'.

Then, she raises her hand and dismisses me with a wave and says in Twi;

'get lost' (fio ko).

OOooohh, that did it. I looked at her raised my hand, gesturing towards her and said disgusted;

'You are a disappointment and a big shame to this establishment. It is in your best interest to take the advice I'm giving you. As a matter of fact, you should be thanking me for my frankness. The postal service system is dying and soon it will be non existant! It is in your best interest to be nice to customers, thus encouraging them to come again so that you can continue to receive a salary'.

The other pleasant lady I went to earlier then starts calling out to me to please stop. I walked to her and she was like;

'Please, it is okay. I will talk to her'.

With that, I walked out. Everyone there looking at me. Lol. ;p

What do you think of this? What ever happened to Ghanaian hospitality? Or is it because I wasn't a foreigner and so didn't qualify for it? We copy so many things blindly from 'developed countries' - bad and good. Why can't we copy their usually excellent customer service to? 

What is our problem? I have no answers, perhaps you do! Do you care to share? I would really want to know.

PS: Oh yea, by the way - I intend to go directly back to no other person but her if I ever have need to go back to the post office again. I would like to see if she has learned her lessons. If she hasn't, well; I'm surely giving her a second dose of my piece of mind. Lol

It sure has been a while since I put up one of these Dean Koontz quotes. I used to have a whole section dedicated to quotes from Dean, other authors I read and Oz but I dont think I've read any novels for a while. The last one I tried was a gift from Efuwa that I proceeded to lose on the tube and that was about 3 years ago.

It does seem like my blogging goes hand in hand with my desire to read because since this resurrection of dotFAF I've managed to finish my first novel and already on a second one. Both from Dean Koontz.

Odd thing was that i was still buying the books but never getting around to reading them and that's sort of a good thing now cos I have about 10 books to go through.

It was all kicked off by the publication of the long-awaited third installment of the Frankenstein series, Dead and Alive

I got hold of it in the middle of last week and raced through it as fast as i could. Things are a bit different from when I had an hour and half to read on the train; my journey home is less than half an hour and involves only 2 stop on the tube. I find myself walking and reading at the same time and hoping I dont walk into someone or worse still a car.

I havent managed to miss my stop yet like I used to do back in the day so I suppose I'm more aware of my surroundings.

Anyway, as you've probably guessed by now, I'm on Your Heart Belongs to Me, a book that I happen to have two copies of. [That is what happens when you lose track of which books you have because you havent read all of them yet!]

The quote above just caught my eye in the first few pages and so I'm resurrecting the quotes though this time with no section of its own. I wont try to analyse the quotes... just put them up so I can look at them later. That way I can always get a new feeling out of them without my old self impairing my judgement scvb92×5hn

"Physical infidelity is the
signal, the notice given,
that all fidelities are undermined." - Katherine Anne Porte

They say sing when you're winning but we started way earlier with the singing and drumming. and it grew in intensity as the goals went in. All 5 goals went in in the first half with Ghana going 2-nil up first before the copper-bullets pulled one back.

I was too busy having fun so I gave my camera to someone else to get some vids and some photos but they all came out blurry or pointed at the field all those times in-between when no goals were being scored.

The atmosphere was buzzing throughout. Barring the goals the bit that raised the most cheers was Stephen Appiah coming on. Essien immediately offered him the captain band which he attempted to refuse. Essien and Muntari basically then forced it on him and told him to shut up. He's still pretty much the captain as far as his team mates are concerned it seems.

Now bring on the World Cup qualifications!