The most ridiculous part is that it's just gas and oil!

OK, so I know I'm in a foreign country and there are some social rules and conventions that are different--I also know that I just need to suck it up. One thing, though, that totally baffles me about this country that's completely hooked on its own efficiency is how they manage to JUST NOT DO THINGS! And I don't mean like insipid or stupid things that don't matter in the long run. I mean important, critical things that I've asked for clarification about. Guh.

So, tonight we went out to this nice little Thai restaurant in town on Widemarsh street, which is just outside of downtown Hereford. Excellent restaurant, great food, and a lovely way to spend our [belated] wedding anniversary. On the way home, we decided to stop in at the gas station to get some candy to go with our Star Trek Voyager Season 3, that we're about to start watching. While at the gas station, Mike insists on checking the oil in his scooter because he thinks it's low. I insist that 'No, the people at the motorcycle centre promised us time and time again that it's topped up and good.' Now, I should know better because when we bought the scooters, we were also told they were full of gas so that we'd get a week before having to refill. We had to refill on our own to get home, because we would have run out of gas on the highway!

So, sure enough Mike's scooter is actually OUT of oil, and mine has just a little bit left in it. So, we've only had the things for just over a freakin' week, and I KNOW that since we're not trailed by huge plumes of black smoke that there's no way they go through a litre of oil in 5 trips to town. So, yet again we realize that in fact, the scooters were not topped up with gas or oil. To make it just that much better, when I asked the attendant for an oil funnel, she looked at me like I was a crazy, crazy person. So, nothing like a little key-cut empty Orange Drink bottle to make the oil go in the hole...!?!?!?

AAAARGH! Why would they say it had been done if it wasn't?!?!?! This is just one example of many situations we've both encountered in the last couple of weeks where, for whatever reason, the absolute opposite of what we've been told has been the case. It makes me nuts.

I am indeed the crazy, crazy person at the gas station.