*sigh* Oh, Canada…

I went to work today and when I was coming out of Eglinton station I saw a massive group of people outside. At first, when I saw all these Asian people, I said to myself “damn, where’s the Casino Rama bus?” but when I saw that there was actually a huge lineup stretching down Yonge and across Eglinton, I realized that these people were lining up for Mandarin. Why? I don’t know, Mandarin food isn’t that great to me, but every Canada day they offer free (I believe “free” is contingent on you being a Canadian citizen) lunch or dinner. Nothing says Canada like Egg Rolls and Chow Mein! mmmmmMMMM!

I don’t know what the big hoopla is about Mandarin, the food is crap, it’s a buffet, and it’s expensive. I saw an old man in the lineup and he had tubes up his nose and was carrying around this bag with him (filled with medical equipment) and he was waiting in line for what must have been hours to get in. Really now! You’re in ill-health and you’d rather spend your time lining up for Mandarin? Chinese food is so cheap and readily available that you shouldn’t have to line-up for it. Ever. Anywhere. Or if you do at least get the stuff that’s been cooked, and not left in a heater all day for people to scoop up.

Do people know what they’re lining up for? Buffets are places where people look at food, and smell it before scooping it up onto their plate (or back into the tray). They had to install sneeze guards, which I assume is to address the issue of people sneezing into their food. That’s all fine and dandy but I saw a couple of midgets in the line who look as if they could circumvent this, since those guards are set at a certain height. Ewww! Hands are used to pick up bread, which is ok if it’s the last piece, but terrible if your hairy arms get all over the piece I wanted. And don’t get me started on the ice cream! People don’t wash the scoops in between mixing flavours for themselves. Hey, you little shit, I bet you feel brilliant for putting vanilla and strawberry ice cream together, right? Now I got all this pink shit in my vanilla ice cream because you didn’t bother to clean the scoop!

But alas, it’s free. If you give something away in abundance people seem to line up for it, and no matter how ludicrous it sounds to line up for hours to get into Mandarin for free food that’s left on a heater, people still do it. In droves.