Saturday, February 19, 2011

Of Oil and Hangnails



The Lunar New Year was just celebrated here in Korea, indeed all over Asia. As for me, I enjoyed working in a very quiet city for a few days. Almost no people, no traffic, and unfortunately almost no restaurants were open, either. Koreans give all sorts of gift sets for this holiday, such as the SPAM gift set which I delivered to The Stumbling Brother a few years ago. Well, this year one of our kind colleagues Mr. H delivered a Holiday Gift set to me - three large bottles of Grape Seed Oil! Not sure whether that ranks above or below SPAM (can it get any lower than SPAM?). But now I'm all set for my cooking oil needs for the next year or more.

I always have trouble with my fingernails, specifically the skin around the edges. Working with electronics, I'm always scratching or damaging my nails. I haven't had good luck trying to repair the damage with nail clippers, my teeth, or even wire cutters, either. So finally last week, I was walking by a fingernail manicure shop in the "Techno-Mart" shopping center near my home. Actually, it is hard NOT to walk by such shops - there seems to be a huge demand for nail care in my neighborhood, witness by the 3 dozen nail shop found on the B1 level alone!

So, I stopped and got into a discussion with the owner about my cracked and broken hangnails. Using body language and my partial understanding of Korean, she explained that it was simple. She gave me a complimentary nail file, and explained what to to. This file was smoother than any I had seen before (I suppose not to sand away all your skin). She told me to file the skin with this file, but to coat the file with oil first. My eyes lit up so brightly when I heard that. As you know, I am the proud new owner of 3 large bottles of Grape Seed Oil. But, when I explained my plan, she told me I had to use Baby Oil, not cooking oil. So, I've added one more bottle of (Baby) oil to my collection. And I have nearly hangnail-free fingers, too.

The Stumbler is not a sissy, and wants to emphatically deny any rumors that he was recently seen receiving a manicure at the Techno-Mart....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got the Grapeseed Oil giftset from my boss my first year in Korea. At first I laughed, but damn if I didn't burn through that shit. Four years later I can't imagine my apartment without a bottle of cooking oil.
How much different might my life have been had I received Spam on that fateful day.

Tuttle said...

Dude, why y'all be hatin' on tha spiced ham luncheon meat food product, yo?