Unboxing

            On Saturday morning I posted “Pamela Popo” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian's Translations blog. The next song I’ll learn is Gainsbourg’s “La poupée qui fait pipi" (The Doll that makes Peepee), in which the speaker is either comparing his lover to a doll or has a doll for a lover.

            I worked a bit more on my Indigenous Studies essay with two days before the deadline.

            On my way to the supermarket I stopped at Freedom Mobile to pay for my December phone plan. There was one guy waiting ahead of me while a single clerk was selling a new iphone to a guy who was trading in his mint condition iphone. After ten minutes the guy ahead of me gave up and left. Buying an iphone seems to be a big production. The clerk asked the guy if he wanted to do the “unboxing". Another guy came in and said his phone had been stolen and he was wondering if he could get a new one under his plan. The clerk told him no because phones are expensive. After another ten minutes the clerk asked him to wait five minutes because his manager would be there to give him a good price in cash for the iphone. My transaction took one minute. Two places behind me there was a young guy who looked homeless and he was also waiting to pay his bill while kicked around one of their black Friday balloons.

            At No Frills I bought three bags of black grapes, a half pint each of blueberries and raspberries, three containers of Greek yogourt, a bottle of mouthwash and some dental floss. The only open cashier was the attractive young woman with the close-cropped hair and the weaponized eyelashes. Another cashier came up and told her that when she smiles it makes her very happy and that made my cashier happy.

            For lunch I had a cheese and salami sandwich.

            I worked on my essay for most of the day and didn’t do my afternoon exercises.

            I steamed some Pacific white shrimp and had them on pancit canton citrus flavoured noodles with a beer for dinner while watching Zorro.

            In this story the new commandant, Captain Toledano arrives in Los Angeles with his beautiful and very flirtatious wife Raquel. Although the captain as irritable and very jealous of men that attend to Raquel, he is a dedicated soldier and is not diverted by the criminal temptations that the magistrate had hoped he would be. But at the inn the magistrate sees Raquel and a local Don Juan named Lalo making eyes at one another. He has a note sent to Lalo that Lalo believes to be from Raquel, which asks him to serenade her under her balcony. The magistrate does this because he knows it will result in a duel between Lalo and the captain and Lalo is known to be a very good swordsman. But Don Diego has been watching from his table at the inn and when Lalo begins his serenade, Zorro stops him and warns him it’s a trap. Then Sergeant Garcia arrives with a guitar and serenades Raquel because he has also received a note to do so. Garcia’s note came from Zorro but he thinks the captain sent it. The captain bursts into the courtyard with his sword drawn, expecting to find Lalo, but when he sees Garcia he begins to laugh. Garcia explains that he was instructed to serenade Raquel on her saint’s day. The captain asks him to sing again and then invites him for a drink. Meanwhile Lalo decides to cash in on the reward for Zorro. They fight for a while until the soldiers attack. Zorro swings around evading them for a long chase until finally escaping. Captain Toledano comments that he understands now why people are writing songs about Zorro.

            Raquel is played by Canadian actor Suzanne Lloyd, who lived in Europe for many years and appeared on several British TV shows such as the Avengers and six episodes of The Saint. She also played Maya in the Twilight Zone tale, “Perchance to Dream”.