Ordinary Gweilo

With thanks to Simon, who has time to trawl the net and find this stuff.

This brings back memories for me. A long time ago, after leaving college and before I knew what I wanted to do (or more accurately, after I had failed to get a job doing what I wanted to do), I spent a while working in a large department store. I think I started this job around September, and originally it was supposed to be just for the Christmas period, though in fact I stayed for a couple of years.

This department store played muzak all year round, and the interesting thing was that after a while my brain was able to filter it out and I hardly noticed it at all. Then they switched to the Christmas muzak, and because it was different I could hear it again!! So although the employers’ spokesman in this story seems to think that a wider selection of music is the solution, I believe the opposite is true. Actually, what I find most irritating is when songs such as Imagine are turned into muzak and played endlessly – somehow I can’t switch off when something like that comes on.