Money Money Money

Thursday, 6 July

Belinda ordered a soccer jersey for her sister. Her sister wanted the Portugal jersey without any player number so the shop had to bring it in specially for her from another place. The boss said it could be collected in 3 - 4 days time. She paid for the jersey in full.

Monday, 10 July

Belinda and I went down to the shop but the boss said the jersey had not arrived. We lied and said that we were leaving the country this coming Sunday. We must have the jersey by Saturday.

Saturday, 15 July

Belinda and I went down to the shop again. The boss was not there. The staff informed us that the jersey did not arrive and even if it did, it would carry a number. So they tried to make Belinda take the one with a number. But that was not what her sister wanted, so she said no. She told them that since they couldn't fulfil their side of the promise, they should return the money back to her. The staff said they couldn't make that decision and so we demanded they call the boss and we speak with him.

On the phone with the boss, Belinda got really mad and started shouting,"我只要我的钱，我什么都不要！你把我的钱还给我!" She repeated this almost 5 times or more and they came in a crescendo, each time louder than the previous! The boss probably didn't know what to do and relented. She got her money back and she vowed never to enter that shop again!

What's funny about this whole episode is that Belinda is actually half Indian. Hence her Mandarin in normal daily conversation is like my spoken Hokkien. One word to describe it: BAD. Normally when we go shopping, I'm the one asking for the price and doing the bargaining. But when she got really fired up that day, she suddenly spoke fluent Mandarin!