Late night shopping

Anna took me to Lakeside this evening after work. It’s been mutually decided that we’ll all dress up for our grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary this weekend as they usually look nice and make an effort, so we should too. We hit all the dress shops and finally get purchases from Debenhams – a black and teal paisley dress from Jane Norman for Anna and a beige and black lace dress by Julien Macdonald for me. We are gonna look gorgeous!!

It was quite late and we needed to find a sweet shop that sold ‘rhubarb and custards’ for Chris. We go to the big sweet shop and while Anna is making her choice, I nip over to Millie’s Cookies for hot chocolate and two cookies for Reuben. I walked back and she wasn’t there! What the hell? I sat on a bench and waited. She comes rushing out of the sweet shop.
“I looked for you but you weren’t in there.”
“I was by the beans at the back.”
“Why?”
“The man yelled at me.”
Look of disbelief.
“Yeah, he was talking in some rubbish language and I asked him about the chocolate bars and he was yelling at me, “Oh you people have TIME on your hands, you’re all RUBBISH, can’t do anything” and just having a go.”
“Shit!”
“I know! I was backed up into the corner and he turned and I escaped!”
“Do you want me to have a go at him?”
“No, you’re alright.”

Slightly shocked we go to the small sweet counter just round the corner from the shop. Anna shovels the sweets into a bag and the guy weighs them.
“£6.92” he says.
“Oh,” Anna says, “can I put some back?”
“How much?”
“Well I only wanted a fiver.”
“£5?”
“£5” Anna says, holding up 4 fingers and a thumb.
“£5,” the man repeats.
“You want £5 for that?” Anna asks, a bit bewildered.
“£5” he says again, holding his hand out and opening the till.
“Okay!” Anna says, whipping out a note.
The man takes it, gives her the bag and then passes us two chocolate mint creams as well.
“Cool,” I said. “The man round the corner yelled at us. Definitely coming here again!”
The man grinned. We walked away delighted.
“Do you think he understood what we were saying?” Anna asks.
“I dunno.” Pause. “Do you reckon it’s stealing?”
“Why? I paid for them!”
“Not fully.”
“Oh well.”

No Nano

I thought I'd be smart and try to get my creative juices flowing in time for the Nano by writing a mini novella. I got to 2,000 words and had the beginnings of a very graphic sex novel. It was almost porn. If that's the best my imagination can come up with, I'm screwed. And I'm certainly not posting! So Nano is out, unless I can rewire my imagination to not write sex scenes even Mills and Boon wouldn't publish. I'm embarrassed to even admit it! My brain cells must be really dusty and dying for some action... (cough)

More new things

‘Tis the week for new things! I went for a regular ear check-up and came out with digital hearing aids. It’s different from my old analogue aid in that my old aid just amplified all noises which could be quite painful for instance if there were sirens or road works. Now the only sounds that are amplified are the ones I can’t naturally hear, so in my case, very low frequency and all high frequency. All mid-range noises are amplified very slightly. Some noises that are usually muffled are now sharper. All in all, it’s a more natural hearing experience, although very strange as I’m used to everything being really loud and muffled!

Its all becoming a bit tinny though. And I can’t hear things behind me anymore. And I can’t hear things I used to. For instance, I can’t hear my car engine anymore. But in a way its good as it doesn’t drown out the radio anymore and I don’t have to have it so loud. However, as soon as I start to sing along to the music, my aids think I’m having a conversation and the music becomes quieter, because they cut out background noise to make talking easier. Oh, I’ll get the hang of it eventually!

New licence

I received my new driving licence today. My photo is now black and white and there are a number of security features which are a nit naff – a steering wheel that changes colour, for example. But its nifty and has my new, lovely and very long name on it!