Spotting that a colleague has a bleedin' wojus foundation tide mark or espying that the girl in the queue ahead of you has the giant flapping white label of her knickers on proud display usually throws up conflicting emotions. On the one hand, you of course want to do the sisterly thing, quietly letting them know what you've copped so that they can right themselves before anyone else notices.
On the other, there's the worry that Betty from Accounts will be highly offended at your youthful impertinence in taking her to task about her make-up application technique, or that Shop Girl will wonder what the feck you were doing looking at her arse in the first place.
Well, I was on the receiving end of some of this friendly advice in Berlin recently, when my very best in-German "Table for two, please" and big smile was met with our waitress surreptitiously rubbing her teeth to let me know that I'd red lippie smeared right across them. Morto, especially since Himself caught her and nearly keeled over laughing: I'd spent a good 20 minutes painstakingly perfecting my red lips in the hotel, pulling a finger out through my "O" shaped mouth to take away any excess... and then reapplied without thinking and apparently without due care en route to the restaurant.
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Although I really appreciated the Frauline giving me a heads-up and I know that I'd definitely want to be told if I'd a bit of loo roll hitching a ride on my heel, I'm still not totally sure how quick I'd be myself to tell a total stranger her fly was down or she'd forgotten to line one of her eyes or should really pop on a bit of deodorant toot sweet!
