Saturday, September 30, 2006

Cyprus irony

Today we went to our local Crown paint shop, to buy paint for both our main guest bedroom and the studio. We chose a light, non-committal shade for the bedroom, but wanted a very dark green for the studio.

We found the green we wanted, and the man behind the counter said that yes, he could make that shade, but it would be 'very expensive'. The more dye they have to add, the more the paint costs, and it would obviously need a lot of dye. We asked how expensive, and he said it would be £1.75 more for two and a half litres than buying a light shade.

We shrugged, and said that we definitely wanted that colour, and didn't mind paying the extra.

So he made up the paint. I love watching this happening - it looks like one of those coffee machines where you can select milk, cream, froth, sugar (etc) and they get squirted into the hot water. When all the dye is added, the lid is put on the can and it's put in another machine, which agitates it until the colour is mixed.

We found a few other things we needed, and the guy totted up the total. It came to £36.76.

Then - typical for Cyprus, particularly when you get to be known in a shop - he discounted this to a round amount, ie £35.

I don't suppose it occurred to him that he had effectively given us our 'very expensive' dye for nothing...

3 comments:

mreddie said...

That would be irony in any country. :) ec

Jenni said...

Hehe, that's amusing.

I wish they would round things down in England. I saw it done occassionaly in NZ which was nice, but rare.

Anvilcloud said...

Never ever heard of charging extra for adding dye. Another cultural difference -- like warm beer -- or maybe not eh? ;)