People watchers

After the rains of late, it’s such a beautiful day we decided to go out to the river for our walk this morning.
The journey there was exceedingly quiet with little traffic, and when we arrived, the three cars in the car park were just leaving.

We walked a slightly different route, coming up behind the cottages having fought our way through a ‘jungle’ of nettles and tall grass.
Getting back to the car, an elderly couple pulled up and the man approached us as we put water down for the dog.
It appears they are thinking of changing their car and our model was of particular interest, especially as they had a rather large greyhound in the back of their Honda that had little in the way of turning space.
We invited them both to come and have a look, allowing the lady to ‘test drive’ the passenger seat for height and comfort as she had mobility problems.
It was a happy start to our day as we had, in a way, done a good deed.

We decided to do some shopping on the way home as we discovered yesterday that we had run out of Tick/Flea repellant, which we can now purchase from the pharmacy.  One of us would stay in the car with the dog with the windows and sliding doors open as it was so hot.
Town was very quiet, so it took me less than ten minutes to get her ladyship’s doggie treats from the two shops involved, and Hubby got the car shift again whilst I did the supermarket shopping.  I was in and out in less than quarter of an hour.
At the other supermarket we use,  it was my turn to stay in the car.
Oh boy. What a load of miserable faces on such a lovely day!

As Hubby disappeared inside, the first couple that came out had obviously had an argument as her face was like thunder and he stomped off leaving her to struggle with their laden trolley.
A twenty-something heavily pregnant woman in the most miniscule pair of shorts EVER went into the shop next, shortly (no pun intended) followed by a young man in a black suit, white shirt and tie who looked like he had probably come straight from church.
After about five minutes of little activity, a lone young woman came out with the Trolley from Hell. We’ve all had it, you know, the one which goes in every direction except the one you push it, has a mind of its own and tries to mate with the car in the bay off the highest part of the pavement. I thought at one stage she was going to lose it completely as the contents therein weighed considerably more than she did!
I was fascinated though by the variance in size, shape, heritage, clothing apparel and haircuts of the people I saw today.
In cases of the latter, there were several with lopsided cuts and many that could not afford to have the whole of their head done in one colour. Purples, pinks, blacks, golds, greens and blues are obviously the latest trends.
It made me feel very old with my own two or three tone brown and grey.

Half a dozen people had started up a conversation in the middle of two parking ranks, thus holding up traffic as people tried to park in disabled bays. They weren’t smiling either, and the drivers of said vehicles were even worse so I guess the heat was adding to their frustration.
The driver of the car next to ours came back and passed some bitchy comment about people not being able to park straight and within designated lines. It made me open my door to check we were ‘beautifully aligned’ as he reversed out of the bay nearly knocking his wife over in the process as she grabbed at the passenger door handle to get inside.
The car on the other side was the culprit, not us by the way, but that didn’t stop a nifty little Micra reversing into the vacated spot.

Hubby came back, all smiles and happy. Such a contrast.

I commented on the long faces of the people I’d seen and he said that he’d seen a very happy young family in the other supermarket whose young daughter was a bubbly blonde with blue eyes and an infectious giggle.

Here’s food for thought though.
One of the last single shoppers to come out before we left owned the pushbike chained to the railing. He put his shopping on the ground and unfastened a rucksack. He put his purchases inside before putting it on his back and climbing on.
I wonder what he intended to do with 2 bottles of beer and a cucumber?

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