Operation shock and awe (now with English subtitles)

I have a picture under my profile now.
Don't all be in a rush to see it.
I wonder if I'm setting myself up for another tagattack.

Why on earth do they have a "view full size"?
That's awful, the thumbnail version is so much better.
Yea, I know you're all gonna click on "view full size" now.

I would definitely appreciate it if you left it as a thumbnail, and let my little fantasy of a good picture live on a little longer.

I waited on campus yesterday during Weng's exam. So for two hours I moped around Southampton Uni on a Saturday morning. I was hoping that Waterstones would be open so I could slowly browse through their collection and hopefully buy a new book to read. But it wasn't, so I wandered around some more.

While at the ATM, this old couple, a white haired, slightly stooped man, and an equally old woman in a wheel chair approached me. I started forming an excuse in my head because I thought they wanted directions. I had no idea how to get around this area, I got lost getting to the ATM and was currently worrying about how to go back to the building I agreed to meet Weng at later.

Then the old man started speaking Mandarin, and I stood there in shock. The best I could get out in response to his "Ni hao, ni jiang hua yi mah?" was "Gnnh, err..."
How embarrassing. Sensing my distress, he went "You don't speak mandarin? You speak can-ton-nese?"
At which point my brain caught up to speed and I gushed "No, I speak English."

I was so embarrassed because he really looked like he wanted to try out his Mandarin speaking skills on me. I can speak Mandarin, just not well, in fact, I wonder if there's a threshold level below which it just isn't Mandarin anymore which would disqualify me from saying I can speak Mandarin.

He said, "Oh, haha, you see, we've gone and learnt Mandarin and everything."
I replied, "You probably speak it better than me."

Which was the absolute truth. Then he proceeded to talk to me about the Bible, teens in trouble, reaching the Chinese community, and left me with a magazine. Which was a blessing in disguise because I had nothing to do for the next hour and slowly ploughed my way through articles like "Teens left alone only mean trouble" and "Parents are to blame for teenage delinquency" and "15 white crocodiles found in India".

Good thing I had something to read to take my mind off of the searing wind. It's not my fault I didn't know that the building I was sitting in front of was open. Almost everything else was closed. So I froze my butt off waiting for Weng to finish.