A few disconnected thoughts, as I can’t think of anything to develop at length.
First, I have mentioned in a few posts the coffee house I go to five days a week, early on, to spend an hour writing or editing, and chatting with the same regular two or three who turn up as the staff are still setting up tables and chairs, sending fresh bakes to their other shop nearby, and generally waking up the building. Here are a couple of photos to give you an idea of the place. Yes, the lighting is low, literally so with the dangling bulbs and hooded lamps, but it’s fine for writing and talking. It can look a little dull from the outside, it doesn’t shout out, ‘Hey, buddy, come on inside and buy a cappuccino!’, but that gives it the sense that it’s a place you accidentally discover or hear about from a friend of a friend and it becomes a haunt you don’t want others to find as it might destroy what you love about the rooms. And, yes, the wooden chairs are hard on the backside, but luckily you can nab a cushion from the sofa because no one else is there…
Now the second ‘ramble on’…I drive a simple little car, a Hyundai, and like many, it has a warning light to tell you if you have a loss of air, usually a puncture. Very useful, for sure. However, at this time of year when you get the first real drop in temperature in the UK, down to 4 or 5 centigrade, it suddenly comes on. No doubt this is because, if you haven’t pumped in air over the year, the colder temperatures have taken the tyre down below the pressure the computerised system onboard will accept. Presumably it thinks, ‘Hey, guys, we have a problem!’. And, yes, it’s not a good idea to drive around on under-pressure tyres, but no one tells you about this when you buy the car. Hence you get a rush of drivers heading to their garages and dealerships thinking they have punctures. A lady came in when I was having brake discs replaced last week, in a panic over this very issue. Ten minutes later, the mechanic said it was because her pressures were 28 instead of 32, not because she had four flat tyres. It caught me out the first year I had the car, and found out my sister and brother-in-law, who had Hyundai cars for several years, also had the issue (they might have told me!). A simple line in the booklet would ease most driver’s minds, wouldn’t it? Anyway, first thing tomorrow, in the cold of morning, I will be battling with the supermarket’s air pump and paying £1 by debit card to pump mine up after the light came on last Friday…
And the third ramble…concerns the shopping centre in town. A structure which has buckets put out on the floor every time there is even the lightest rain, and during several recent floods had its 1000-place car park closed off due to water and the outside open-air part still has some shops closed up and others with sandbags left permanently in position.
Inside, they have spent a little money to add Christmas lights and decorations. Gaudy, it must be said, but at least they’re trying. But the reason for adding them here is the feature element of the displays – a very large teddy bear sitting in front of a very bright Christmas tree. Children can sit themselves on a chair and be photographed with the bear, or rather, they can sit between the bear’s legs and be photographed. I know in the past kids used to sit on Father Christmas’ knee (surely no longer?) but it does look a little odd to have a four-year-old kid sitting where the bear’s genitals would be. Or is it just me? Anyway, there was a snakelike queue waiting for their turn on Sunday afternoon so it seems to attract interest from the more innocent-minded.
Enjoy your long build-up to Christmas – Easter eggs going on display as soon as we hit December 1st…
Jamie Neve 