"A Question of Priorities" - Conflict, 1993

I love to eavesdrop, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's always been fun to overhear conversations while on public transportation. But I think I enjoy it even more since moving to England - although, to be fair, I sometimes struggle to understand young-Britspeak!

Yesterday, after work, I got one of the last available aisle seats on the 4:20pm park and ride bus from Oxford. As has been happening a lot lately, more and more people kept crowding on. With school still out for the summer break, there are lots of visitors to Oxford. Selfishly, I wish they'd come in and out of the city when we tired commuters weren't! But that's another blogging topic.

So standing right next to me on the bus were two early-20-something women. I was so curious to overhear their conversation that I turned off my iPod (but left the earbuds in my ears, as a way of disguising my curiosity). They had several shopping bags each, and they were chattering away about this and that.

Then they began excitedly talking about the new flat that they are moving into next week. They were also complaining about how "skint" (meaning broke, to my American readers) they both are, meaning that they can't buy many new things for their flat.

But here's what I enjoyed the most. One of the two young women kept talking about her financial situation. She said that she really wants three things and has been saving her money for them. The three things were - a car, a new laptop, and hair extensions. But she told her friend that she couldn't do all three. So she'd been thinking a lot about her life priorities. It wasn't an easy decision, she said to her friend.

What did she decide to do with her money?

She's getting the hair extensions!

Janet

Read all about what I'm listening to at Auditory Cortex.