The City I Love

It's spring here... walking with the green steps of the leaves. There are times that I truely understand why I love this town...:

The hectic rush before the New Year's onset, the smell of Daffodils, the pure blue sky, the wind, the stars at night so close you can reach out & touch... I Love Tehran!

NoRooz, as we call our new year, is just around a corner & once in a while it slides it's head, a takes a glance at us... Everything is in motion... people, shopping, laughing, running, strolling, cleaning... birds flying, winds blowing.... You can not sit aside & not be in the waves... they overcome your wish to stand still & move you forward...

Are You a Left-hand?

One of our little joys of the life, aka pass time, is getting up dressed & have a night out in a fancy restaurant: imagine 5 girls, dressed up & made up, shouting & making a mess in a 5 star hotel. Most of the time the butlers have wild guesses that we are bunch of drunks... which we absolutely are... we get high on each other presence.

Anyhow what I wanted to say is not about that. It is more about an incident that happened in one of these posh hang outs of ours.

You are, of course, very well aware that when the table is set the glass is either set up the plate to the right or beside the plate to the right. also, I'm sure you are perfectly acquainted with the fact that the cutlery should be held by the right hand. Right?

I am not unfortunately a total lefties... but I use both hands to do things: I sew with my left hand, & I write with my right. I take the glass & the knife by my left!

Now you have all the elements to my story: A posh restaurant, a semi-lefties, & a butler of high elegance!

Our table was set when we arrived... & I was accompanied by a nice elderly gentleman who happened to be my guest. We sat & the first thing I did was as always change the place of the glass. The butler came a while later & changed the position of my glass thinking that I have done it ignorantly. & as I have had orderd Steak he put the knife down on the right side. I, once agian, changed the position of the glass, had it filled & subtly while speaking in muttered hush voice changed the position of my knife. This time the old butler got totally out of hand. He leaned over & thinking that I probably did not know the rules, whispered that I should leave the glass at its place on the right. "I'm a left-hand." I explained. He looked at me strange & said: "so? you must keep the glass on the right...!"

- no I use my left hand.

He just nodded his head like I was some wierdo & left. The next time he came by I was cutting my food with my left hand. I swear he choked.

It was nice that it seemed that he have not met someone like me. Laters that eve, my company told me that he knew a lot of left-hands who used the right hand styles in eating.

Now I wonder, do you use your left hand while on table for food?