A Singapore childhood friend, Jin, came to London for a 10-week course at the London Business School, then went on a 21-day package tour of 20 European cities with his wife. In Vienna, they played a game involving taking turns to drink lager out of a glass boot. When the lager got down to the level of the horizontal section of the boot, especially if it was confined to the tip of the boot, the drinker had to tilt the boot gently or the lager would suddenly gush out and splatter him/her, earning him/her a penalty drink. It was a vicious cycle: the more the drinker is penalised, the less able s/he is to handle the tilting of the boot, so the more s/he is penalised.
Jin and his wife loved the game, and thought, “We must get hold of one of these glass boots, so that we can play this game when we get home to Singapore.” They were told that this game was one played in German-speaking countries. The next stop, Heidelberg, was also their last Germanic venue, therefore their final opportunity to track down a glass boot. They arrived at 4.30pm, half an hour before closing time, so they rushed around, scouring the shops, ignoring the famous castle. Eventually, they got their glass boot. Happy at last.
When they got back to London, they decided to do more shopping during their three-day stay. As they emerged from Oxford Circus Tube station, the first thing that met their eyes was a shop window displaying these glass boots, and at a much lower price than what they’d paid in Heidelberg.
(Vienna, Heidelberg and London, 1985)
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