Dear Dr Kitty of the Universe,
Today I bought some choccy. I sat at the tram stop in between a schoolgirl and a middle-aged man. I cracked open the block (a block is a bar to me) anyway it tasted so yum I felt like offering someone some... after careful consideration I thought it best not to offer the youngling any, didn't want to undo 'stranger danger' etc. At that moment the man curiously looked at what I was eating... bingo perfect opportunity to spread the love… “Would you like some” I said kindly motioning it to him*. He half smiled and politely accepted. Keeping the flow, I turned the pack around and said 'it's pretty good, I've never had it before'. The fact that it was Fairtrade came up in conversation and my new chocolate friend asked if there was any sign that there was palm oil in there. I asked why and he told me that palm oil is often cultivated in an unsustainable way, tearing down the orangutans habitat (poor orangutans). Then he said a word "ussple". I pretended to know what he said by laugh/saying "yeah". Then I said... "Sorry I didn't actually hear what you said". He repeated "ussple" I tried a second round of pretending. Then straight up said, I'm sorry I have no idea what you're saying, is it a different language? Finally my ears wrapped around his words. He was saying, "us people" In reference to the palm oil and what humans are doing. We cleared all the confusion up just in time to jump on our tram. There was no awkward now-we-are-on-the-tram-do-we-keep-talking business and after a while my temporary acquaintance got off at his stop, passing me he said, “thanks for the chocolate” and I replied “thanks for the word”. He paused suggesting he forgot… “Ussple” I said he replied “Ussple, take away the gap and you have ‘uspeople’. We chuckled then he gave me a friendly nod of the head goodbye. Gotta love the small things in life. L.K xx
*Had I not he could have thought I was being passive aggressive. ‘Cause you know 'uspeople' can be like that.