Adventures in Christmas shopping
Being the entry I started to write yesterday before I was distracted by across-the-road's flag.
After the best part of a year of disputes with the council and building works, a chain of jewellery stores has opened a branch here in town, on a prominent position on the main street. Just in time for Christmas, oddly enough. What a coincidence! I'm not really the target market for this shop - I don't wear much jewellery and, like Anne of Green Gables, I find diamonds disappointing - but I went for a sticky-beak at it. Judging by the crowd in the shop, so did everyone else in the city, which makes me think there's not really enough excitement around here. Even though this kind of mass-produced, tasteful jewellery isn't my thing, I've got to admit the shop was very nice. And I did find something I liked: green porcelain teacups with dainty blue hummingbird handles and red 3-D flower decorations. Just how I like my home wares: preposterous.
Then I had not one, not two, but three (yes, THREE!) bad queue experiences. I mean, I take it as given that I will pick the slowest queue. These all had that something extra.
( Target )
( Leading Edge Electronics )
( Coles )
As I was putting my bags in the boot, an old lady, tiny and birdlike with a long greying auburn plait, on her way through the car park had to wait next to me while a row of cars whizzed by.
"I hate it when they park crooked," she said, pointing at a crookedly parked car with her keys.
"That's mine," I told her. "But I'm crooked because the car next to me was."
"Oh well then, that's alright. I won't punish you." She bent down and pretended to scratch the paintwork.
She told me a slightly confusing story about how she puts birdseed on her car's front bumper and her neighbour's chicken comes and eats it - "Puts scratches all over it!" - and how she waited for it with a bucket of cold water until she had to come down the street. I wanted to ask why she put birdseed on her car in the first place, but she was off on another subject - traffic. "I used to park up further, but I don't like going out past Target because they come out of the underground car park there so fast... it's a terrible corner. There's always problems there." It is an odd corner - a crossroad, where traffic coming down three of the arms turn onto the fourth - so I agreed, and she toddled off happily.
Stopped at the Give Way sign at the terrible corner in question, I discovered the source of some of the problems there. An old lady, tiny and birdlike with a long greying auburn plait, in a scratched blue hatchback, driving the wrong way down the one-way fourth arm and bringing the other three streams of traffic to a standstill.
It was good to get home.
After the best part of a year of disputes with the council and building works, a chain of jewellery stores has opened a branch here in town, on a prominent position on the main street. Just in time for Christmas, oddly enough. What a coincidence! I'm not really the target market for this shop - I don't wear much jewellery and, like Anne of Green Gables, I find diamonds disappointing - but I went for a sticky-beak at it. Judging by the crowd in the shop, so did everyone else in the city, which makes me think there's not really enough excitement around here. Even though this kind of mass-produced, tasteful jewellery isn't my thing, I've got to admit the shop was very nice. And I did find something I liked: green porcelain teacups with dainty blue hummingbird handles and red 3-D flower decorations. Just how I like my home wares: preposterous.
Then I had not one, not two, but three (yes, THREE!) bad queue experiences. I mean, I take it as given that I will pick the slowest queue. These all had that something extra.
( Target )
( Leading Edge Electronics )
( Coles )
As I was putting my bags in the boot, an old lady, tiny and birdlike with a long greying auburn plait, on her way through the car park had to wait next to me while a row of cars whizzed by.
"I hate it when they park crooked," she said, pointing at a crookedly parked car with her keys.
"That's mine," I told her. "But I'm crooked because the car next to me was."
"Oh well then, that's alright. I won't punish you." She bent down and pretended to scratch the paintwork.
She told me a slightly confusing story about how she puts birdseed on her car's front bumper and her neighbour's chicken comes and eats it - "Puts scratches all over it!" - and how she waited for it with a bucket of cold water until she had to come down the street. I wanted to ask why she put birdseed on her car in the first place, but she was off on another subject - traffic. "I used to park up further, but I don't like going out past Target because they come out of the underground car park there so fast... it's a terrible corner. There's always problems there." It is an odd corner - a crossroad, where traffic coming down three of the arms turn onto the fourth - so I agreed, and she toddled off happily.
Stopped at the Give Way sign at the terrible corner in question, I discovered the source of some of the problems there. An old lady, tiny and birdlike with a long greying auburn plait, in a scratched blue hatchback, driving the wrong way down the one-way fourth arm and bringing the other three streams of traffic to a standstill.
It was good to get home.