Last night as I was walking home after the market, trundling my wheelie bag and laden down with my fold-up chair, rucksack of bits and bobs etc, I was jolted back to reality on a dark London street by a cheery 'Hello!' from a cyclist who had just pulled up alongside me. After 0.37 seconds I thought 'Who the, what the...' and stomped onwards, as I find ignoring loons, certainly in the first instance, is always the way to go. That, or start quoting song lyrics at them in a whispery voice so that they think you're the crazy one (Best daytime bet is Coldplay 'Look at the stars, see how they shine for you...') Then he thought to remove his ski mask and I realised it was the butcher.
About a year ago I discovered a local halal butchers and at first thought it was great, but recently I decided the hygiene wasn't quite what it had been, since they did a refit and moved everything around it seems much more disorganised, ironically, so I haven't been visiting so much. One of the butchers in there always gave me great chat, or as much as he could with his basic knowledge English outside of meat terminology. And that was who I met last night.
He was incredibly friendly, to the point I started meaningfully metioning my husband a lot. He asked me what I'd been doing that day, and I replied that I'd been at a market - the limitations of his English became clearer when he got over-excited at that stage, gesturing at my luggage and thinking I'd said I'd been to Marrakech. (I wish.) After a couple of minutes when he started to say something about coming to visit me at the market, I gave him the cheery 'Well, lovely to see you, must be off now, see you in the shop some day!' and left. Occasionally glancing over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't behind me.
Is it London that does this to a person - a big city makes you crave anonymity and engenders suspicion of what may just have been friendliness? I have always liked being able to hide away whilst in the thick of things in London and perhaps that's not such a good thing, too much Ivanna B Alone. That is something I will have to work on, I think. Meeting crafty people, through this blog and knitting group has been great and I'm making a totally new circle of friends in addition to old friends which has been a godsend these last few months. I still think I'm going to be cooking more vegetarian options.
Speaking of meeting people, another bloggy pal came by the stall yesterday, JeanieB is her posting name. It was so lovely to get a big smile from her, and to spend a few minutes chatting about knitting corsages the size of dinner plates - to say nothing of her nine year cross stitch project - especially as yesterday was another quiet day in terms of footfall, though sales were better. I sent her off down Marylebone High Street (the other shop I was trying to remember was VV Rouleaux, hope you made it in there for a browse!) and have to say now that I'm not responsible for any damage caused to her bank balance.
Though I'm not affiliated with them in any way, and can't say anything about their delivery service, I can recommend A Place in the Fridge's bananas. They are a London based organic fruit and veg box company who have a stall at the market. I was presented with a wee mixed bag when we were all packing up last night (in the dark again, still no lighting this week - mutter mutter) and so far it's all been delicious. Also to be recommended are Keith Daniel chocolates, should you come across them. Particularly the cinnamon ones, yum...
Though my fingers were extremely cold yesterday, I did get some knitting done. Here's a little preview...
Right, I'm off to Camden on a Flibbertygibbet's Parlour research trip. Part of me just wants to stay indoors, to do some crafting but that's not the whole of it. The howling wind and rain this morning were combining to create a licence to avoid the world for another day. It wasn't easy to get out of bed, but we can't be having that sort of carry on. Plus the sun is shining brightly and you have to make the most of those days, of all days. So out we go...
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