Tawdry Junk

Overheard at the Pub

Hayley to her father: "The special is rib-eye steak."

Hay's Dad: "Rabbi steak? What's that?"

Chairman: "It has a bit lopped off the end."

Was on another jaunt round Europe this last week - Rome, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Copenhagen. One leg was flown via Lufthansa and I had the chance to check out their in-flight catalogue and compare it to that of BA.

Whereas BA sells tawdry junk and cheap perfume at ridiculously exorbitant prices, Lufthansa sells divers goods, curiously wrought and ingenious in construction, yet extremely useful or beautiful (or both) and costing a pretty penny. I mean, I don't mind paying say £300 for a robust Kitchen Aid mixer (Lufthansa), but balk at several hundred pounds for some chav Swarovski glass or a perfume endorsed by a sleb (BA). 

It kind of says lots about the Brits and how we appear happy to buy expensive junk, rather than well designed and engineered goods. I suppose that's why German car manufacturers are still going strong, but the names associated with British car manufacturing have long since died or moved abroad. Or is it? Given the fact we DO buy crap, the UK car industry should be thriving (at least domestically): perhaps it's the fact no-one else wants to buy crap that killed our car market.

The Lufthansa in-flight magazine was trying to big-up Brixton in London (scene of riots, muggings and murders) as a tourist destination, calling it, of all things, Brixton Village. That's a new one on me! This seems to me to be a marketing ploy to justify higher prices in restaurants and pubs in a rather nasty part of London - at least it was the last time I visited. Perhaps they're confusing it with Brixham in Devon.