Saturday 10 March 2012

Hundred Pound Burger


In England- you don't have to tip at a restaurant; but you can if you wish.
Being an American living in England, I am constantly being asked "What are you doing living in England if you're from America?!?!" They don't seem to understand why I would ever want to leave such a cool country that has it all. Until of course I tell them that I am basing myself in England for now- working the pound, so I can travel Europe! I plan on going to Scotland, Austria, Germany, Spain, France and Sweden in the next two years. I have not been to any of these except Sweden, and I want to take advantage of my freedom before I get married and have kids. Then they nod in understanding and either tell me "good luck" "have fun" or "you should go here ... its gorgeous".
There was this one day where I spent quite a while talking to these two men about how I want to travel and see the world, but only with money allowing. I come from a poor family and I have only had crap jobs with crap pay and crap hours, so I need to set a lot of my dream either on hold, or they will just stay dreams. I have lots of dreams and so much I want to do- but i'm not rich so I just have to make do with what I have and be grateful because there is always someone doing worse than me.
At work by the tills is where we have out tip jar, so if we are lucky and get tip, it all goes in there and we split it at the end of lunch, then again at the end of the day.
On this particular day with these two men, I saw that they were leaving. I enjoyed talking to them so I went to say bye. The one man asks me where is the tip jar- I tell him it's by the tills, and he starts to walk over. I see a £20 note in his hand! The other guys looks at me and hands me a wad of money. Curious and confused I look at him, then look at the money. I see that it is £100!!!! A gasp escapes my lips and I feel my eyes pop out of my head! £100!!!!!!!! £100!!!!!! £100!!!!!!!!
"I'm sorry, but this is way too much money- I could never accept this!" As I try to hand it back. He looks at me quite seriously and says "Emer, I want you to have it. Go to Austria for your birthday! Everyone deserves to have a little help with achieving their dreams, here you go."
"But I can't... It's sooooo much money"
Now at this point, my manager Sean comes over to see what is going on. With the money in my hand still I say, "This gentleman is trying to give me £100 tip!!! I can't accept- it's way too much!"
The gentleman looks at Sean and laughs. "I am leaving the hundred pounds here. I have money and a hundred pounds isn't that much to me, she deserves this." Turning to me he says, "Just think of it as a hundred pound burger! Haha"
"Emer, it would be rude not to take it." Sean says as he gives me a face.
And with that, the gentleman smiles and walks away.
Still in shock, I feel Sean staring at me but my eyes are on the man that is walking towards the door. Just before he leaves, I run and scream "SIR!?"
He turns around and sees me panting (I have never been much of a runner...) I take a breath and give him the biggest hug that I can muster and whisper "Thank you" over and over again.
"My good deed for the day." was all that he said and he was gone. As I walked back inside and finish clearing the table where the men had sat, Sean comes and says "Well done, You sold a hundred pound burger!"

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

This has never happened to me, but I can always wish, right?

No comments:

Post a Comment