No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Life is funny eh? You think you know something or at least are fairly familiar with something, and then something happens that sends your whole world view tumbling to the ground.

Me, I thought I knew a bit of English, at least enough to get around. The other night proved me wrong. I was coming off the ferry in Mui Wo, cold and bothered after another sub-Arctic half an hour and was relieved to spot a taxi at the pier. Now I wouldn’t have to wait ten minutes for the bus that may or may not take me on a horrible 12 minute detour around Mui Wo Market, a distance even the most decrepit can easily cover on foot much faster than it takes the bus to drag its tired body around, what with the 60,000 traffic lights permanently stuck on red.

Now I would be home in nine minutes! I saw a couple behind me and as usual I offered fellow wanderers a lift, telling them I was going to Pui O. “Oh, you can just drop us off at [mumble mumble]” the man, a corpulent Englishman, said breezily.

Not a problem. We all got in and he proceeded to tell the taxi driver to go to – Mui Wo Market! My jaw dropped so far, it took several seconds and the car speeding off before I managed to hoik it up again. “That’s not dropping you off, that’s an enormous detour!” “Oh, I’ll pay 20 dollars,” he said, still breezily, adding “we always take a taxi home.”

I couldn’t say a word for the rest of the trip, staring stonily ahead as they struggled out without a word of thanks. When I came down the hill near Pui O 20 minutes later, it was to see the lovely sight of the arse of bus number 1, stopping at every bus stop and taking its good time about it too.

So the result was that I got home a little later than I would if I had taken the bus, but got to pay $35 more.

However, I got something out of it: I found out that while I was sleeping, the English expression “dropping off” had taken on a completely new meaning.

英文 (Ying Man – English language)
一對夫婦 (Yat deui fu fu – a married couple)
車我去 (Cheh o heui – drive me to)