Thursday, November 30, 2006

Well preserved

The other day, I came back to work to find a red bag on my chair. It is one of those "environmentally friendly" carrier bags, on it printed the name and logo of an NGO. Inside the bag are:

1. 1 bath towel and 1 hand towel
2. 1 tube of massage cream
3. 1 bottle of herbal insect repellent
4. 1 tube of antiseptic gel
5. 1 tube of analgesic cream
6. 1 cup cake
7. 1 small bag ginger bisuits
8. 1 small bag butter cookies

So I took the bag home, gave the towels to our domestic helper, and put the various creams and gels in a box, and chucked the edibles into our junk food drawer.


The next day, I asked our secretary

Hey that bag in my room .... where'd it come from?

Oh, it's from xpxxx, you weren't in so I left it in your room. They had some kind of function and that's one of the leftover goodie bags they handed out to participants.

Who are the participants?

Not sure... they are all elderly people though.

Ah, I see .... towels come in quite handy... and the gels and creams too.

Yes, they are not cheap ga! $28 for a tube of that analgesic cream! Hey did you eat the cookies?

No, not yet. Well I haven't anyway. My kids might have eaten some. Why?

Check the expiry date first, I think they have expired. The cupcake in the bag I got had the expiry date 13rd September 2006.

????? And they handed that stuff out to old folks ???????


Speaking of which, in the pantry, there are always bags of cookies, packets of seaweed, spicy dried cuttlefish, roasted peanuts, and assorted sweeties lying on one of the tables. I never checked but now it got me wondering how much of that stuff has passed their expiry date, and by how long.

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