First lunch date is so memorable
GOING out for lunch for the first time since March was quite an experience.
Everything felt different, from salt and pepper being in virus-safe sachets to tables being set far apart.
And although I have been dreaming of my steak pie, I was a bag of nerves because I was scared in case there was any chance of me catching Covid.
I worried that not everything had been disinfected. But it wouldn’t be the done thing to turn up with my own bottle of bleach.
It was lovely to be out with Sue, Sheila and Hannah.
And we loved doing a spot of people watching, one of the hobbies I hadn’t realised I’d missed.
My steak pie was so lovely, I didn’t even mind when it repeated on me all night. And Hannah had a halloumi burger that was so big, I asked if she was going to eat it or climb it.
I don’t know when I’ll be ready to go out again but it’ll be in my own time.
Driving out of Llangollen after lunch, I saw a man standing on his own outside an old-fashioned hardware shop and felt so sorry for him.
The streets were pretty much empty and I worried that people might not go to his shop when big stores like B&M and B&Q can afford to have more stock and lower prices.
I miss the shops of my childhood, where people knew their customers and were experts about everything on their neatly displayed shelves.
My mum used to send me to a hardware shop in Wrexham called Tommy Taylor’s for blue bags, which we used to whiten laundry.
They had everything, from strainers to screwdrivers.
Then I’d be sent to my Auntie Nell’s house to pick up shirts and bring them to the laundrette.
Later to the baker, where they’d leave mum’s loaf in the oven for a bit longer, the way she liked it.
There were sweet shops where I could buy four chews for a penny and look wide-eyed at the jars of pear drops, bon bons and lemon sherbets, which were my favourite. It’s hard to compete when big supermarket chains sell everything cheaper.
But the stacked-high shelves and busy staff make the whole experience impersonal. I wish shopping could return to the friendly, quaint and charming experience it once was. tea