So last night I'm enjoying a very tasty dinner at one of the nicer places on the beach here (meaning there's only one cat and no dogs wandering through, and they have ice supposedly made from a filtered water supply, among other things). Their kitchen has two parts - one indoors with the range, fridge, etc., and a kind of back porch area where a couple guys appear to be doing food prep or the like. I was sitting at a table out on the deck overlooking Half Moon Bay and could see a bit of that back porch area.
One of the guys walks over to edge and executes the maneuver we used to call a farmer's nose blow. That is, put a finger against one nostril and expel the contents of the other towards the ground. Only this time he was left with an 8-10 inch-skein of snot hanging off his nose. So he grabs it with his fingers and tosses it to the sand. Then goes back to work.
This may be the reason I got that Hep C immunization before coming down here...
You're probably more likely to get a rhinovirus. Not only could a nasty cold spoil your trip and trigger earaches on the return flight, but now they've found one rhinovirus that kills its victims. (If this sounds like I'm playing the spoiler out of schadenfreude over you being there and me being here, well...)
At the least, the mere sight of that would have killed my food appetite for at least 24 hours. Booze doesn't kill rhinoviruses but it's a decent antiseptic - good enough of an excuse to stick to an alcohol diet until the munchies drive you back to solid food. Skoal!
Posted by: Shivering in the Suburbs | January 30, 2009 at 04:03 PM
I didn't mean that the snot represented a direct threat of Hep C. But rather that the incident might be indicative of overall food safety practices...
But the booze diet sounds worth a try. Too bad Honduran beer is pretty much like Budmilloors swill.
Posted by: RMA | January 30, 2009 at 04:20 PM