Blind man...

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Most of my week days are spent either working at Binland or walking the fuzzballs, and yesterday was one of those days where I just had to get out of the house, get into my car, and drive somewhere which involved neither.

So where did I decide to go for my precious two hours of escape?  Nowhere near as glamorous as you might think.  In fact, I decided to head up to Didcot and get my Sherman Tank cleaned (those two dogs have a lot to answer for, rapidly followed by the husband with his empty water bottles and discarded paper bags from his favourite baker- like I don't know about the secret sausage roll fetish).  

It was only as I turned into the car park that I remembered that the second phase of the shopping centre had opened just recently. A little frisson of excitement skipped down my back as I knew that TK Maxx was one of the new stores.   And I needed (wrong word, wanted would be more accurate) a new bag.

I almost threw my keys at the car wash man, shouting, 'In and out - you've got an hour and a half'', as I briskly stepped out towards the new shops.

It was all very shiny and new.....and empty.  This was alright though, as I hate a crowd and I wandered around the shopping centre, happy as a pig in poop.  The weird thing was that most of the shop units were still unfilled, although they were advertising the shops which were 'Opening Very Soon!'  Well unless 'Very Soon' was before 4.00 yesterday afternoon, then it was of no good to me, so I stilled my beating heart with a foray into TK Maxx (nothing bought), a perusal around River Island (two tops bought which will probably go back next week), and a wander round H&M (nothing bought again, although there was a very interesting exchange of words between two of the shop assistants about 'what happened at the weekend'.  Unfortunately, I could only feign interest in the yellow lace crop tops for so long before being labelled a weirdo, so I can't tell you what the outcome was I'm afraid).

So it was back out into the empty shopping centre to be faced with two workmen gazing upwards at the side fascia of a shop.

The boss (I knew he was the boss as he was wearing a white hard hat) was saying that the customer wasn't very pleased with the wall.  'What do you think it looks like?' he asked his gopher (called this, because they 'go for this and go for that').

Now obviously, the gopher is destined for great things, as he'd worked out that if he gave the wrong answer, then more work may be required.

'I think it looks fine', he said with an air of authority.  'I mean, a blind man would be glad to see it'.

I'm sure he would, but not as glad as he would be to see all those bloody shops open...




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