Business of the village #4
Out early (okay, only 8.30am) on Saturday morning to buy provisions from the village shops before they close for their day of rest on Sunday.
To the grocer for some tomatoes and asparagus and jersey royal potatoes and a little slab of rum and raisin chocolate, which has become my preferred chocolate to eat when by the sea. Makes me feel like a pirate.
Then to the butcher. This time for lamb cutlets for dinner tomorrow night and some rashers of bacon for breakfast.
The elderly man ahead of me orders some sausages, half a dozen eggs and a pork steak. As the butcher is packing up his order, another bloke comes in and says, “Glen you're pretty busy in here, pretty spicy for a Saturday.” Glen tells him he's always busy.
The elderly man tells Glen that he still owes him some money. “Do you?” Glen asks. The elderly man told him that yes, he does, he wrote it down. Glen starts fossicking through the pages of a tatty looking exercise book. The bloke behind me chimes in, “Wouldn't want you running a bank, mate.”
The elderly man says, “Yeah, you ask for people to pay cash and then you never have the change. Just charge me fifteen quid for what I've bought today, I think it was 37p that I owed you.”
Glen gives the man the right change and doesn't claim the 37p he's allegedly still owed.
When it's my turn to order, Glen asks when I'm going back to London. I tell him Monday morning now. He laughs and says, “Well, I won't be here tomorrow but I reckon I'll see you before you go.”
Then I pop into the bakery for two crusty rolls. BLTs for breakfast, I've decided. Glen’s rashers of bacon are proper thick, so I reckon they'll be great in a BLT. (They are).
On my way home I pick up two coffees. The lovely guy who has made the coffee each day starts trying to engage me in a conversation about the technicalities of coffee making. He seems to assume that because I've been to Melbourne and come from New Zealand I must know a thing or two about making a cup of coffee. I don't. He earnestly thanks me for liking his coffee so much and wishes me a safe trip home.