Reading and Riding

I was in my chauffeured limo, the one that has my logo, RTA Dubai, on the side. Since Arabic is written from right to left (as I've mentioned before), that's really Dubai AT R., where, of course, the R. is for Random.

Anyway, I was trying to read The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, when a man came by and said, 'Is that your mobile ringing?' I looked up from my book, noticed that a mobile WAS ringing, and said, 'No, that's not my ring.' The ringing stopped, and he went back to his seat.

I returned to my reading and read about how the UK, after World War II, didn't have enough food, and bought some of Lysenko's triffids to provide them with a cheap and plentiful vegetable oil that was great tasting and also had all the essential vitamins one needed. (Before the triffids, the Brits had been using fish oil to fry everything, so everything tasted fishy.)

The mobile started ringing again, and I went to where it seemed to be coming from. I looked under the seats and between the seats, but didn't see any lost mobiles. The mobile stopped, and I went back to my own seat and back to John Wyndham, who explained that, for maximum oil production, the triffids had to be allowed to keep their poison sting, and one of them had stung the narrator and left him blind for a couple of weeks, so he'd missed a beautiful meteor shower.

The mobile started ringing a third time, and the person who was searching for it walked past me. I noticed that the ring, when he was in front of me, was in front of me, and that the ring, when he was in back of me, was in back of me.

'The mobile is with you,' I told him. He searched his pockets and found the mobile. His problem was solved.

But I'm still not sure what the UK will do with the triffids.