Faking It ...

I was having lunch this afternoon with wifey and the boys at our usual neighbourhood restaurant. Normally when I'm having my lunch with the family I don't like to be disturbed. But the thing with these so called neighbourhood restaurants, you often get these sales people coming in and trying to sell you stuff while you're in the midst of your meal. Imagine this scenario. You're sitting there, all nice and comfy, your food just arrived. You're ready to dig in and just as you're about to stuff that juicy succulent meatball in your mouth, suddenly this guy comes up and with no warning, practically stuffs your face with some product or other and goes:

'Excuse me sir, sorry to interrupt your lunch, but you want to buy this or not? Very nice branded watch. Very cheap one ...'

Now where did you get that cockamamie idea that you interrupted my lunch? How could I even have my lunch with all that products you just stuffed right into my face along with my meatball attached to it somewhere. Go right ahead and continue to make my lunch a fine and pleasant one with your sales pitch. After all I've got all day to sit here, while my food gets stone cold and wait to see what it is you actually want to sell to me. Don't mind me and my family who are just interested in having a nice peaceful lunch together!

I think a lot of you know what I mean. It's either some guy or even girl selling you all kinds of stuff or even fake 'branded' goods or some Shoalin Monk soliciting alms, or some organization asking for a donation to save the iguanas or something along those lines. While I've no issues with them doing this, after all everyone needs to earn a living, but I really hate it when they come up to you while you're in the midst of eating.

And these guys are so irritating or persistent if you want, that they won't take a simple 'No thank you, I'm not interested' for an answer. They'll keep on trying to sell you something else or to donate to some other save the chickens scheme that they have. And no matter how many 'No thank you, I'm not interested' lines I tell them, they'll still try to insist you buy something. It's only when I lose my temper and ask them which part if no they don't really understand will they start harassing the folks in the next table!

It happens a lot here and these restaurant owners really don't do anything about it. I wish they'd at least prevent these people from spoiling ones meals. Anyway, this happened to me today but this time I was almost done with my lunch and this guy came up to me selling replica rolex watches. Strangely enough, I was kinda intrigued this time so I decided to entertain him and see the range of so called Rolexes that he was selling.

The watches he was showing me and trying to get me to buy sure looked like the real deal to me and I was tempted to buy one ... hehehe ... Let's put it this way, I don't think I could afford a real Rolex watch in my lifetime. And if I did one to own a Rolex, replica's were the only way to go for me. And the details on this Rolex replica watches was so good that you really wouldn't be able to tell that it was fake. I'm not really a supporter of fake 'branded' goods cos I do believe in intellectual property rights and all that but sometimes I do wonder whether buying a replica makes more sense economically than actually getting the original.

'A believer of intellectual property, Nick? What about all those so called cheap games that you buy?'

That's different, ok? And let's not even talk about that. Besides, weren't you about to go jump off a cliff or something? Well honestly though, I have bought fake branded stuff before in my younger days. Hey, back then I was poor, ok! Not that I'm any richer now mind you. So fake, urmmm, let's not call them that, let's call them replica goods. So replica goods were the only option for me. I used to love this Tag Heuer watch and it cost like 3 arms, 5 legs and 3 toes and the best option was getting a replica and I did get one. And besides no one knew it was a replica. From a distance you couldn't tell. You just had to be careful to lot let people see if too closely, otherwise they'd notice that the Tag Heuer was spelt wrongly. LOL!

I don't buy fake stuff nowadays, urrmmm, well, maybe that fake pair of crocks was the last fake thing I bought but I've bought loads of them in my younger days from watches to wallets to belts to jeans and even bags. I don't know about all of you but I'm sure a lot of people would definitely have bought at least one fake item or product in their lifetime. Tell me about some of the fake stuff you've bought in your lifetime, not that I'm implying that you did, but if you did share-share la so I don't feel like a cheapskate all by myself here ... LOL! And do you think it's better to buy replica's than the real thing? As for me, I've decided to stick to original products these days. Nothing beats an original Arsenal T-Shirt than the original :D