The 'good' and 'bad' of yesterday's Valentines Day ...

This will be a long post. Yesterday, "Valentine's Day", was a mix of good, fun, interesting and ... what can I say ... unexpectedly and unanticipatedly upsetting?

I'll tell you first about the good/fun/interesting part ....

I spent the day-into-night surrounded by hundreds of red roses and different flowers (lilies, tulips, chrysahthemums, etc) as I worked, along with another friend, in our friend Randy's flower shop in Gulf City. When I'd first heard that he had a flower shop I got excited and said I wanted to spend a day in it, working ... preferably doing deliveries. I wanted to see peoples' faces when they received their blooms. He told me that V-Day, along with Mother's Day, is the busiest day and he would definitely need the help. That's how I ended up there ...

This new in-the-shop experience was interesting to me, observing the mass phenomenon which on one hand can be seen as people wanting to be 'romantic' and on the other hand can be interpreted as: "I HAVE to buy flowers for my woman or else ...!!"
Due to the economic situation and "belt tightening" there were apparently not as many customers as usual/as expected. On V-Day the shop is normally a buzzing hive of activity way up to closing hours. Yesterday there were less, but still a steady stream. Mainly men came in to buy flowers. Their expressions ranged from stressed, confused, scared, embarassed ... to innocent, hopeful, eager, cassanova-ish.

Some would come in and mumble something quickly under their breath, forming an entire sentence into one incomprehensible word:

"Ahcometobuysomeflowersfuhmuhgirlfriendwhatallyuhhave?"

... seemingly embarassed to be buying flowers. Akin to going to a supermarket to buy tampons or sanitary pads.
Some men, upon buying the flowers, were embarassed to walk through the mall with them. One girl from my French class (small world) came in with her brother who was buying a bouquet for his girlfriend. He was shy about buying them and embarassed to walk through the mall with them after purchase. He wanted his sister to hold them and she said "No! You have to." As they left, I noticed him walking with the flowers in front of his face.

Most of the men had interesting ways of asking for flowers ... almost like cave men. One man came in and said simply: "Ah want flowers."

One man came in, cast a swift glance around, pointed to rose bouquets awaiting collection in a corner and said: "Gimme one ah dem ting like dat."
One man came in, pointed to some helium balloons and said: "Gimme wanna dem."

Hmmm ... very eloquent.
(N.B. I'm only highlighting the ones I found were funny. Some were quite normal, politely asking asking for advice on what to get, etc.)

Some of them didn't know what to write on the little gift cards. They get people in the store to come up with words and write their messages for them. I wondered: what does a man say when a woman gushes over a beautiful message that he knows he didn't write? Some of them wrote their own simple messages ... basically To (woman's name) From: (Their name) ... and some would add something extra like "With Love". One man stated that he had to go away and think about his message, but he knew "some Brian McKnight songs so would put in some of those lyrics."

Some men looked like they were under real stress. Buy flowers for your woman or die! I watched in fascination, actually feeling quite sorry for them, realising that (some!) women are very difficult and demanding! I don't think men in general have it easy!!!

I observed people streaming past the shop door, along one of the main corridors of the mall, like robots programmed to buy buy buy. Never before had I sat for so long in a mall, deliberately observing the masses, seeing the drama unfold before my eyes. Made me glad I'm not a slave to the commercial, material world. I noted many women, clearly in their element, walking confidently ahead, determined to buy (0r be bought for) ... with 'their man' slowly trailing behind, looking unenthused and submissive. A kind of "Is Valentine Day. If ah eh come wit she and buy she ting ah go be in trouble."

One man, who came in later in the afternoon to buy roses, said: "Gorm! Ah already get cuss!" I asked him: "Why? Because you didn't get her anything?" His response: "No! Ah order de ting! Look it dey! But ah now comin' to collec! She cussing because she ent get it yet!!"

There's much more to say about that experience, which was interesting, enlightening, funny, endearing ... Glad I did it. A new experience to add to the growing list. I even got to make two or three deliveries to various women who worked in the mall ... and (with my friend Gab, who had popped in to see me), spontaneously gave a rose to a little mentally challenged girl (or very short woman?) who, upon receiving it, folded her arms, twisted her face into a horrible grimace and growled emphatically: "I HAAAAAAAAAATE FLOWERS!!!!!"

Well ...

to cut a long day-into-night short ... let me now tell you about the 'bad' part of the day.

:(

Let's just say that something important to me broke at 9:30 a.m. ... and it wasn't my heart.

It was my brand new, lovely, trusty and might I add expensive digital SLR, Synchronicity ...

:(

I was sitting in a food court, waiting for a friend, Lee, to come and pick me up to head south to the flower shop. I was taking my camera at request of my friend Nish who said "Go and take some nice shots of the store for Randy!" Before leaving home, something was telling me not to bother ... because I was already carrying a cooler with my raw supplies for the day. But ... I went against my instincts. My camera was on my lap in my (padded) camera bag which, as I thought, was strapped around my neck as always. But when I stood up to greet Lee, the camera bag dropped to the ground. I thought nothing of it because it wasn't a hard drop, it didn't drop far (12 inches, if that far) and the bag is padded.

When we reached Gulf City and were in the carpark, I took out Synchronicity to take a shot of some hearts in a window display. I clicked as usual and then went to look at the image in the LCD screen. I saw a set of lines and a strange black blob and NO IMAGE!!! "What?" I thought, thinking it was just that shot. No ... the LCD screen is completely conked out with those lines and strange dark shapes, looking broken within! Aaargh ...!!

This is what my LCD screen now looks like ...
almost like the curtains opening on a stage for the play to begin.

There's nothing for me to say. I can take it for someone to look at it on Monday ... but from what I see, it doesn't look good. I could send it back to the US for repairs, but ... often the cost of doing that could be more than the cost of buying a new camera. I'll have to investigate all possibilities and move swiftly on my best option. After all, I do 'need' my camera.

:(

As you can see from the shots in this post, I can still take photos with the camera ... but I can't look back at the images I took (until downloaded to laptop) and can't use the menu display, etc without the LCD screen. When I really think about it ... that's just like using a non-digital SLR. You don't get to see the images until you develop them ... and you just have to know what you're doing manually to get your shot.

But ... I still miss my LCD! I want to see my controls and to look at the image firectly after and make sure it's what I want!

That first shot I took (after 'the fall') ... when I realised that something was seriously wrong with the LCD screen.

Immediately thereafter, wildly taking pics of anything (here, car door) to see if LCD was really damaged.

My friend Gab, who came to visit me in the flower shop. This is her face, still in shock, when I was showing her the camera and clicking to demonstrate that it could still most likely take shots. She looked more upset than I did.

Angel in flower shop.