The accidental Snob
I don't ever want to be a snob but I do love mimicking them for a giggle. Unfortunately, there was an incident, which occurred some years ago, that could easily be misunderstood that I was a complete and utter worst kind of snob. I was reminded of the incident this Christmas as I was driving past the village of Voss in Norway. I've both visited and stayed in Voss hundreds of times in my twenty odd years of living in Norway. Voss is famous for many things, including the most Olympic Gold medals per capita of any of any village or city in the World. Now, it is most famous for its bottled mineral water called "Voss". All the celebrities love it and it is used as a luxury water for First and Business Class cabins on some major airlines. For the people of Voss it is just water. You can pretty much drink any water you find anywhere in Norway. They don't treat the water with any chemicals or add any fluoride either. It is just water and it is used for everything. I have huge respect for the marketing company that has made Voss water a must have item for the rich and famous.
It was on Emirates airline that I made my stupid stupid stupid error. I had no intention of being a snob and when it happened I only realised I had been an arse because of the expression that appeared in the cabin supervisor's face. I had been, by pure luck, upgraded from Business Class to First Class on a flight from Seoul to Dubai. Once on board, I was settling down in my seat when the cabin supervisor was going around asking if anyone wanted a drink before take off. I had once heard two snobs talking on a reality TV show, I can't remember what it was called, but one was insisting that he only drank Perrier water because Evian mineral water was only good enough to keep his goldfish in. At the time I thought that person was a right snob and had way too much money if he was keeping his goldfish in Evian mineral water. So here I am, sitting in my huge First Class seat and the cabin supervisor offers me a tall bottle of Voss mineral water, which I graciously accepted. As I read the big word "Voss" on the side of the bottle I watched the cabin supervisor's face turn into a look of horror as I said, without thinking, "Oh, Voss water, back home we flush our toilets with this."