What they teach in school

This is not a little bear post. This is a Grumpy Sybil post.

I popped into the local chippy at lunch time for fish n chips for darling father. There was a youngish girl on the till, and she had rung in the amount and then just put it in again to say paid without putting in the amount the customer before me had given her. So the till didn't say the change. It's a nuisance when you are busy and you are out of the flow of doing things in your head, but stuff happens.

Except she couldn't work it out. The previous customer had given her £15, the total was £7.35 and she couldn't work out the change. It didn't help that she was starting to panic. The 'rabbit in the headlights' took over and she was well and truly flustered.

It is true to say that it took me a minute or two to work out the correct change, and I think if I hadn't made a joke about learning on a till older than Arkwright's and telling her the correct change then I think she would still be there, staring in terror at the terrible till. It is horrible when your brain seizes up, and I am not brilliant with numbers - but surely it wasn't too hard.

Little bear will be getting spot checks on mental arithmetic.