"You know it's the Chinese New Year?" he asked the driver.
"Yeah."
"Year of the Dragon?"
"Yeah."
"My friend in Alice Spring says two guys dressed in a dragon costume just ran into her shop and crapped a whole lettuce on the floor."
The driver blinked at him. "What?"
I started shaking with suppressed giggles. The welder looked at me. "That's pretty wild." he said
"It's Alice Springs," I said. "It's that kind of town."
He typed into his phone, and a minute later recieved a reply. "My friend says you must have lived in the Alice for a while."
Finally the truck driver spoke. "Why a lettuce?"
The significance of the lettuce was never resolved. Even the Malaysian guy (born in Malaysia, Chinese parents) was mystified. Maybe there is a cultural significance we were missing. Maybe a lettuce crapped onto the floor of a shop by a dragon costume, is just a lettuce.
I don't care. It made a very dull day a little more interesting.