Sitting on the couch with Freddie and he's doing one of my favourite things to watch. He gets his DVD player, puts on one of his movies, gathers round his boxes and re-enacts the movie using the appropriate toys. Tonight he's watching Land Before Time, an animated dinosaur movie, and using his stock of dinos he's all over the couch roaring and fighting. Its a show I could watch all night and never fails to bring a tear to the eye, he gets so involved the look of concentration on his face is only gorgeous.
Today I decided to try keep a note of people who came into the shop, just to try get an idea of the variety of people I meet every day. If I wrote a piece on everyone from today I'd be here all night and probably well into tomorrow as well. And today was a quiet day! First up, just after I opened was a friend who was working on a plan for a garden design and leaving it till the last minute as usual.. she'd run out of ink and needed to submit the plans by midday. So she got her ink and rushed off to print the plans. Its reassuring to know that even Chelsea Gold Medal winners leave things to the last minute. After she left a guy came in wearing an old suit jacket, trousers and a polo shirt with a fine crop of grey chest hair sprouting out of the top. He had a phone about five years old, 'a great one', but the dog had eaten the charger. Had I an old one lying around? I had to break his heart and tell him no. He left me his number just in case and we parted friends. As I sat down a woman looking like she'd had the shock of her life came rushing in. For some reason she'd been sitting in bed last night and had decided to take out her sim card. In the process she broke the phone and was in a panic. As I put her new phone together she wondered about what happened to the text messages on her old phone. "They stay in the memory of the phone" said I. "So thats what happens to the phones you send to Jack and Jill." her voice rising in worry, "They send them off to Africa and the nigerians read your all your messages" I laughed. "No. That's what happens.That's how they blackmail you,those africans." She was serious. I decided to leave it at that and quickly finished our business. Number four of the day was a nice English man, probably in his seventies who's lived here since the mid 1980s. This Winter he's decided to learn about computers and was in buying another piece for his collection. We chatted for a bit and off he went, his USB Hub under his arm.
At about eleven I had to drop down to the Medical Centre to get yet another prescription for Freddie. On the way I went into Benner's Hotel to use the toilet. There was a guy in there giving his hands a good wash. In these circumstances I never say anything as you never know if someone wants to chat or not. "Fine fresh day isn't it?" he said washing away. "Lovely" I answered," pure Autumn."
"Jesus I love these sort of great days, can't wait to get out in it" still washing as he spoke. As I washed he left, giving me a big goodbye. After collecting Fred's medicine I headed back towards the shop when it started to lash. Walking back up the hill there was my man from Benner's coming down. "Not so fresh now" I said "Fucking awful" he said from under his windblown umbrella but still with a chirp in his voice.
Back in the shop a guy came in looking for "something called a router" speaking in a lovely beautiful city accent. "What sort of broadband do you have?" I asked " The ordinary sort. I don't know" he said smiling at me. We came to deal on what he wanted, he has a holiday home back in Dun Chaoin and now retired was down from Cork on a more regular basis. "This can be a mad place sometimes" he said laughing as he spoke, "the funniest thing just happened to me on the way up here." He'd been walking up the street when a guy stopped him and asked if he wanted to buy an electric razor kit. My customer declined but the seller kept going. "Its worth €140 but you can have it for €40" he was told. He declined citing the fact he already had one as an excuse. The price was dropped to €35, €20 and the €15. The retiree still refused to buy and the hawker opened a Lidl bag to show the goods. Still refusing and walking away the guy said "Alright a fiver" From €140 to a fiver in a matter of seconds. Fearing it was going to be forced on him my man walked away and ducked into me for escape and a bit of sanity!
That's the story till midday. Its getting late, time for a glass of wine and some cheese from The Little Cheese Shop on Greys Lane. Well worth a visit if you're around.
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