Air In A Can

Spray cans filled with oxygen have gone on sale in Japanese supermarkets – an addition to “oxygen bars” that already started springing up across the country.

The air-in-a-can, which is 95 per cent oxygen compared with 21 per cent in normal air, is for use at the first sign of yawns or sighs, indicators of a drop in bodily oxygen.

I saw this bit of news on CNN today in my lunch break, and other than thinking “what the hell are these Japanese going to come up with next?”, it also reminded me of a funny story that happened with a friend of mine in Jordan.

One day this friend of mine, who was an ex-colleague and who then went on and opened his own web design company, was contacted by a client who wanted to create a website to sell his product online. My friend had no idea what the product was yet, and he went to the client’s office to meet with him and talk about the project.

It turned out the guy was still settling down in Jordan, and hadn’t opened an office yet, and my friend ended up at the client’s house. Up to this point, everything is going on normally; my friend got to the house, was greeted by the client, and was seated as the client went off to get something.

As usual when waiting in a place we don’t know, we let our eyes and minds wander off, taking in our surroundings, and imagining how the soon-to-start conversation is going to be like, and we end up a bit disconnected from the reality around us, and that’s exactly what happened to my friend.

All of a sudden, the client appeared out of nowhere with a can in his hand, and he sprayed something on my friend’s face. My friend panicked and jumped up of his chair with a million conspiracy theories running through his head, about to hold the client and give him a good beating. The client felt the sudden rage, stepped back and told him to calm down and that this was his product, some sort of oxygen spray, called an oxygen shot, with the slogan “It’s a cold shower in a can.”

He then asked my friend if he felt refreshed; my friend didn’t feel anything, it was just like spraying a bit of water on your face, more annoying than refreshing; but not wanting to let the client down, he nodded in that non-convincing way we all know.

When he told me the story later on, I laughed like crazy, imagining how he must have felt and his reaction. Priceless…