Sunday, March 30, 2008

A difficult customer, the butchers and where's the coffee?

1. Outside the vacuum cleaner repair shop a man in a mobility scooter waits while the shopkeeper runs back and forth -- he unboxes the hoover that the man has just bought and ties it on to the scooter, tucking accessories around it. All the while, the man complains about the steps up the shop; the steps up to other shops and the poor access to his local health clinic.

2. We make a pilgrimage to the butchers at Hawkenbury. The shop is crammed with people waiting to be served -- we watch a man buying steak with thick white fat, and a lady asks for 'a large chicken'. The butcher picks a naked carcass up from the pile and hefts it -- 'This one all right?' -- before packing it up for her. The smell made me think of the butchers my mother used in the village where I grew up. But there was no sawdust on the floor.

3. We find Katie's grandmother's stash of Kenyan coffee -- in the tea caddy.

Book treasure, worn and speaker.

1. Finding treasure in the Oxfam bookshop. I only popped in to look for a card. 2. Bettany doesn't wear makeup out and about, but noneth...