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Nails, Affairs, Gossip and Manners


As usual I enjoyed visiting my nail salon, Nail Affair, this afternoon. Sharon, the owner is hysterical. She is probably the only business owner in Australia who can get away with abusing, in a very “tongue in cheek” way, her customers and staff, and have us all laughing with her and at her. She has a heart of gold and a sense of humour which is boundless.

The salon is only small and when I visited a few weeks ago, Sharon was having an unusually quiet day and as it happened, one of her customers wasn’t. Listening to this woman talk and talk, in a very loud voice about her life, the people in it and her views on all manner of things made me think about how impolite it is to impose such a voice on those around her.

I didn’t know her, and from the reactions around me I don’t think the other customers did. But she didn’t draw a breath when speaking to the girl polishing her nails. I was incredulous that she would be so indiscrete in what she was saying, as if she was speaking in a room on her own.

It reminded me of a similar situation I had recently on a plane where the people in front of me talked, with names, about people they knew having affairs. The world is such a small place that as with the privacy issues of Facebook and other social media sites, those using the old fashioned communication form of conversation “gossip” can breach privacy issues and create consequences.

So gossip or a laugh with Sharon? I’ll take the latter anytime!

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