Fatima came home at lunchtime on Sunday to start her two week holiday.

By lunchtime Monday she had:
Piddled on the carpet (cos she was straight out of the car from Aucks)
Chewed a drinking cup
Chased the cats
Chased the cats some more
Almost caught one of the cats whilst chasing them
Had a fight with her mother
Received 2 new holes when Nushie carved her a couple over possession and ownership of a bone
Gashed my face open with a claw whilst jumping on me in bed

The last one is the one that hurt.



So did the tetanus jab the nurse insisted I have, but just a little compared to a dog's claw ripping a hole in your face at 7.30 in the morning. Between the pain and the blood, I was seriously scared to take my hand off it and have a look. It's funny, I am brave as hell watching the kids have jabs or stitches and I don't care about having blood tests done, not even the cultures that use a humungous needle, but the mere words "tetanus injection" put me right back to when I was a small child having one (it was probably after one of my bare_feet_rusty_nail scenarios) in Dr Lambert's dressings room at the back of the old house that was his surgery on Cameron Rd, right opposite what is now Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

Dr Lambert was Mum's employer when she was a single nurse newly arrived in Tauranga. His rooms were where my mother met my father. His rooms were the scene of the incident that brought on Mum's rheumatoid arthritis when, after Raewyn was born (but before I was born), she returned to fill in for a few weeks and managed to jab herself in the thumb with a needle she was using when lancing a boil. The resulting reaction to the infection changed her life forever. (Sometimes it's the little things that fuck ya). His rooms were the place where the nasty tetanus injection was delivered, in the back room on the vinyl bed with the pale green walls. His rooms were where I was magically transported when the nurse mentioned those_two_words.

The brain is weird, but strangely amusing at times.

We splurged and bought KFC for dinner last night, via the drive through lane. We ordered an 8 piece pack (with Pepsi) and a Reg coleslaw. That's short for regular, you know. The menu board at the ordering terminal had no picture of the coleslaw and no size or weight was advertised, just the price - $2.25. So we drove up to the window, handed over the eftpos card, did the button thing and the kid says "your meal will be 8 minutes yet" and hands me a plastic bag with paper serviettes and the pottle of coleslaw.

All 80 fucking grams of it. I said to the kid, "is this the right one?" and he assured me that yes, it was. I was gobsmacked.

I was so.

Then he says, "can you park on the grass while you wait for your chicken", so we moved it on over into the nearest park on the street (cos others were parked on the grass, waiting too) and I hopped out and went back into KFC to sort this charade out. After 15 minutes in line (because everyone was waiting for the next batch in a few minutes and the counter girl was short a few buns) I finally got to speak to the duty manager who also assured me that yes, that is the regular size. I suggested to her that, as they had no image, size or weight of the product to base your order on, and as my money was taken off me before I saw the product and because there was no way in HELL that I was paying $2.25 for 3 dessertspoons of coleslaw, I would really like my money back please. She gave it, willingly.

I wonder why. I was very pleasant.

I was so, ask Ads.

How many people get seriously ripped this way by the drive through at KFC? Usually the bags are handed out all packed and you might be 5 miles away when you discover that your coleslaw will only feed a small gathering of ants. How many people will drive all the way back to town for $2.25? How many will ring the shop and speak to a teenager who doesn't know anything? How many will ring head office?

How many will splash it all over their blog and email the Commerce Comission? I think one's enough.

I don't pay $28/kilo for coleslaw. Not even Kentucky Fried Chicken coleslaw.