Thursday 27 June 2013

Ashbourne Today: A Dog Out of Water.

Other than being treated somewhat less than respectfully by a supermarket till, today’s Ashbourne experience was brimming over with Interesting and Enlightening Happenings. You may have a list:

1) I went into the DIY store to make enquiries about a new hedge trimmer. I spoke to a manager who was most enthusiastic about my choice of device, because he said he’d bought one and had been ‘pleasantly surprised’ at how well it functioned. My radar told me he was genuine, so I asked all the pertinent questions and eventually decided to order one. Everything went smoothly until we got to the end of the process, and then the computer said ‘None available.’ Yup, that’s about the size of things these days. He promised to make enquiries and give me a call. We’ll see.

2) The woman-with-the-nice-smile who runs the charity shop where I bought a sweater last week didn’t smile at me today, even though I was wearing said sweater. Maybe she doesn’t feel the need to, now that she’s sold me something.

3) A little girl of about eighteen months did a double take as she was being pushed past me in a buggy. She even turned round and watched me as she was being wheeled away, so I assume there was something about me which she found Highly Interesting. Such attention is wont to pique one’s curiosity.

4) The big, fat, white bull terrier which I see every week in Ashbourne, and which seems desirous of making friends with every human within sniffing distance, now has a companion – a skinny little black bull terrier with bulging eyes. The eyes looked up at me as I walked past within sniffing distance, but their meaning was obscure. They could have meant ‘Don’t mess with me, buster, just because I’m little.’ Or they could have meant ‘You will be careful not to tread on me, won’t you?’ Or they could have meant ‘Mmm… just sizing you up to see whether I think you’ll be worth eating when I’ve grown a bit.’ Or they could have meant something else entirely. Come to think of it, though, I’m not absolutely sure it wasn’t a tadpole.

2 comments:

Anthropomorphica said...

And you call me strange! That last paragraph has me believing that Mad Jeff hasn't quite left the building...

JJ said...

My defence is that I have an oblique sense of humour.