Punktuality

It has been a long time since I posted something. Which is rather ironic given today's post. The subject of punctuality.

I've never understood why stores open late. Given that their trading hours are proudly displayed on the store's window/door/awning and website. When there's the required stock taking or staff training, this is not so much an issue. You usually find a polite note on the door stating that the store will be opening later than normal. No, I'm talking about plain tardiness. I don't care what the reason is that the store opens late. Years ago at Cape Tech, there was a lady in my class who got up 3 hours before she had to be at class. She had to walk for 45 minutes to get a taxi to take her to the train station where she had to fight to find a place on the train before disembarking at the station in Cape Town and walk another 15 - 20 minutes to Cape Tech. Or now the posh Cape Peninsula University of Technology. CAPUT as I refer to it.

The point is, Lulu was never late. Not once in the two years we were in class together. Never mind the fact that she was 45 and stuck with a bunch of 18-year old kids whose biggest challenge was to find the next tequila train you could join on a Wednesday night. She is a formidable woman and although my mom taught me the importance of punctuality, Lulu gets the credit for me never, ever arriving late. There is just no excuse.

Two weeks ago I got invited by the Kugel from Primrose to join their Sunday lunch. Sunday lunch at the Kugel's place is always a treat. In fact, every meal I've been invited to has been a gastronomical delight. But I started feeling bad about always being the one to bring the wine or a dessert acquired from Woolies. No, the time had arrived to offer to bake a pudding for Sunday lunch. Along with some wine just in case the pudding is a disaster. I started planning in earnest and decided on a baked chocolate pudding. Simple enough yet if executed correctly, decadent and chocolaty.

For days I poured through all my recipes books. I do have quite a few even if I hardly use them. I love paging through them and salivate over the recipes. And then close the book and heat something from Woolies. Go figure. Eventually I found a recipe in Rebel Cook and decided that it offered the right combination of manageable ingredients and execution yet with a very impressive end result to show for your efforts. I did the shopping required and thought I had it all covered. Until I discovered the Saturday night before the Big Baking Project, that I don't have anything in my house to measure grams with. And that 30ml and 30g is not the same. Unless it is water. Like a true yuppie I whipped out the 3G card and the laptop and tried to Google my way towards baking salvation. Alas, it wasn't to be. Slowly it dawned on me that I probably need to acquire a scale, the only way to solve my predicament. And then the stress started building. It meant having to go on a Sunday morning to the nearest shopping centre at 9 and acquire the scale, a sieve and an ovenproof dish to bake the dessert. It takes 30 minutes to prepare the dessert and an hour to bake it. I said I would be at the Kugel's place at 11. It was going to be close. But possible.

I woke up early on Sunday morning, anxious about getting my baking equipment. I had already sourced my scale the day before and established that it was @ a home ware store - quite a well known one. By 08:50 I was standing in front of the store and patiently waiting for them to roll up their door at 09:00. By 09:02 I was getting antsy. By 09:05 I started sweating. I was losing valuable minutes. Despite pacing up and down in front of the store and staring at the staff, there was no movement from the manager to open the door. He kept addressing his staff with his back turned to me. Eventually the door was opened at 09:12. I stormed past him half expecting an apology but his silence haunts me until today. After finally finding the scale (how stupid of me to ask one of the sales assistants to point me in the right direction, they assist sales not customers) I dash up to the counter to pay. Only to find them unable to process credit card transactions automatically, their systems are down. After the inevitable 'Do you have any cash on you' question, I almost lunged across the counter and assaulted the man. I was beyond gatvol at that point. It was 09:45 before I eventually got home and could start baking. I ended up being late for the lunch but the dessert was thankfully a success.

It's a well documented fact that service in South Africa is not to the standard it should be. Especially not with a major sporting event taking place next year bringing in hundreds of thousands of tourists. Now I do understand that the average football supporter will probably not be fazed by a home ware store opening 12 minutes late. But this is sadly not the only store guilty of 'punktuality.' Simply put, 'punktuality' is when idiots or punks cannot perform their duties and allow stores to open late.

You may think the blog is over and you can release yourself from this diatribe. But wait, there's more. This morning I needed to go to my local pharmacy to get my prescribed nasal spray. I cannot function without it in winter. My delicate Cape nasal passages rupture every morning thanks to the dry, polluted Gauteng air. Which leads to nosebleeds and the possibility of my neighbours slowly becoming convinced that I'm snorting coke. I know the pharmacy opens at 08:00 so I'm there at 07:57. Only to stand outside along with a rapidly forming queue of mothers with sick children waiting in not so quiet desperation for the pharmacy to open. The lady eventually arrives at 08:10 and again, not a single apologetic word is offered to any of us standing there. The pharmacist is covered in cat hair and there is no wedding ring to be spotted. Considering she is on the wrong side of 55, I assume she is single with cats as her company and lots of them. So what could possibly be her excuse for not arriving on time! Fluffy, Muffy and Whiskers suffers from separation anxiety and couldn't bear to let her go? What if I needed chronic medication such as blood pressure tablets or diet pills? I could've suffered a heart attack or gained another kilogram while I was waiting for her to show up. Forget Grease, punktuality is the word!