Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Good Old Adage

April 27th 2003 was a day that I still haven't forgotten.

I have noted the reason on one or two occasions in the years that I have been maintaining this blog. To cut a long story short, it's the day that somebody walked into my life. This certain person came along at a time when I needed to smile. And for the countless hours we spent talking about anything and nothing, I was smiling.

One of the things I used to jest her about was how she would throw in the adage about there being 'no such thing as a free lunch'. Before coming across her, I had probably heard the adage but had never paid attention to it. However, as soon as it came out of her mouth, it became part of my consciousness and I was hearing it all the time.

We haven't spoken to each other properly for years. If we had, I'd have told her about two occasions where the line she made famous made me smile.

Firstly, in 2005 or 2006, I was at work and one of the customers had tried ripping me off by not paying a certain part of their bill. I was in the midst of the dispute with them and I uttered the 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' line. As soon as it came out, I was thinking to myself 'I cannot believe I just used that in an argument'.

The best story I have was in the past year or so.

I received a call from a cold caller. I interrupted his opening spiel by asking 'what are you trying to sell me?'

'Nothing. This is free,' was his reply.

I couldn't resist.

'Somebody once told me that there is no such thing as free lunch.'

'Who told you that?'

'You do not have enough time in your day for me to get started on that one.'

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