Down in Papershop Village this afternoon, papershop bloke was having trouble with his till. The customer before me had had to leave the shop in a hurry with half of her shopping rung up. ‘Her little boy needed a wee right now,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how long she’ll be before she’s back so I’m setting her shopping aside.’
‘There’s something you wouldn’t get in Tesco,’ I said.
‘True,’ he said. ‘And I’ll tell you what else…’ Some time back, it seems, another mother had been in with her young children who were busy choosing their sweets. All of a sudden he heard the mother call from a corner of the shop ‘George, No!’ followed by ‘Er, can I have a mop?’ Apparently the little boy was in the process of being toilet trained and – finding himself caught short – was relieving himself on the pile of logs there for sale as firewood. ‘Surprisingly large puddle for a little chap,’ he said. ‘But that’s definitely not something you get in Tesco.’
‘No,’ I agreed. And I left, wondering if this didn’t go some way towards explaining the trouble I have starting fires.
July 8, 2009 at 6:40 am |
Reminds me of the filthy looks we got when I told my 9 year-old to just go in the gutter when having just crossed the sleeve (la Manche). Autres pays, autres moeurs. My bugbear here is when a supermarket does have a public loo (less than half) there often isn’t a sink, and where there is, only about a third have soap. Little old ladies come straight from the bogs to the fruit & veg, which explains why I still buy Milton tablets, despite having teenage kids!
Sorry for the tangent – not fully awake yet
j
July 8, 2009 at 7:53 am |
better outside in the gutter than inside in the shop! Which side of the Manche were you on? Because in London nobody blinks an eye at public urination any more
July 9, 2009 at 2:55 am |
We had just disembarked in Douvres. Here I regularly swerve to avoid having to perve at the cyclist trying to make rainbows by the side of the road. Most discreetly face a bush, but some…my daughter asking me why that man’s waving his willy about isn’t conducive to road safety.
j