A trip into town

It’s a bank holiday weekend here – last of the summer. I did a food shop on Friday to see us through till Tuesday as I don’t want to be caught in tourist traffic.

That title sounds so quaint, doesn’t it: like something you’d read in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book (‘Pa and Ma had been planning for weeks during winter to take us into town for supplies as soon as the weather cleared. We were as excited as jack rabbits coming out of their burrows for the first time after the snow cleared.’).

An.y.way.

I went into town last week – to exchange a shirt with my son (‘that’s not green. How can they label that green???’) and get a haircut. And try a new concealer as my under-eye area is in need of assistance.

It was incredibly muggy and close, and I simply didn’t have the oomph to drive. So, took the train. It was sort of exciting to see the new houses going up on the estuary front in the village, the plots bought for close to a million pounds where the old house is knocked down and then whoever owns the land has a new Grand Designs structure built for another million or so while living in rental property for the couple of years it all takes.

But I digress.

It was actually nice being ‘in town’ in some ways. It made a change. I got to get a hot chocolate from the place that makes it without sugar (ie, it’s heavy duty, with chocolate shavings and steamed milk, and that’s it). It has this wonderful viscous texture and tastes outstanding. I sat on the cathedral (yes, the town has a proper cathedral) green drinking my chocolate watching the world go by.

The hairdresser told me all about her recent wedding on a Greek island. I should have had my wedding on a Greek island rather than in Brooklyn Boro Hall.

I had planned to visit the remaining local department store (there used to be three in a town of 130k people – no wonder two closed) to do some sniffing. But when I got inside and checked out the offer I lost my enthusiasm. The place used to have a lot more including mainstream stuff. Now, things are just sort of pedestrian.

After that, I wandered before the hair appointment and took some pictures (on my phone) of things that stood out. Like the new bakery called Cake or Death and the experience place called Locked in a Room (uh, no, thank you).

I wanted to take a pic of the window of a chain pastry shop called Patisserie Valerie (which used to be ubiquitous on UK high streets until the finance guy cooked the books …) but there were too many people in the way. It’s not a place I would go now. The window cakes and pastries look gorgeous. Problem is they taste like those magnificent cakes you see in US diners – the five layer chocolate cakes, the foot tall lemon meringue pies – that make you drool but taste like cardboard or soap suds.

So, no cake and no perfume.

At least the hairdresser used the wonderful smelling Aveda Light Elements Texturizing Crème on me as a last step. It’s got all kinds of beautifully stinky aromachemicals (eg, cinnamon, lemon, and even barley!) and I got wafts every once in a while until the next day when I washed my hair and used the also wonderful smelling Malin & Goetz Sage Styling Cream (travel sized tube) which smells of sage and mint and perhaps a bit of thyme.

Was there something fun or weird or beautiful you observed this past week?

(featured pic is Wiki of ‘town’ in the late 1800s; others I took)