Shopping and high water

[shewhomust]

The river's in spate in town this morning, and so's the conversation. All the shopkeepers ask if it's still raining outside, and everyone wants to tell you where the river is highest, and where they think it will burst its banks (or where it already has).

We were chatting to the lady in the gemstone shop. I was looking for a birthday present for a friend (and found some pretty Celtic earrings, thank you, but not before I'd been snared by a silver brooch for myself) and while I browsed, she told us about where she lives, up the dale, and how high the beck is running at the bottom of the garden. We talked about jewellery, and minerals, and where they are found - but the best story, I think, was about the dinosaur footprint she had obtained by special request, for a client, and put in the window - where a local academic had seen it and come charging into the shop: "Where did you get that?" She explained that it was from a major (and entirely reputable) dealer. "Oh, yes, of course - but you see, I found that footprint when I was at Cardiff thirty-odd years ago! Wait, I'll go and get you copies of the papers I wrote about it!" After which, of course, she had to explain to the original client that, sorry, it wasn't for sale after all, she'd find him another footprint. (It turned out that her supplier had bought the footprint from Cambridge, who were having a clear out).

That's what I call a successful morning's shopping - something I'm very aware of at present, as we've lost out town-centre supermarket, and I'm having to revise my shopping habits.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

What a cool story!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely story about the footprint

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Excellent story! I'm glad that the print and the discoverer were reunited. ;-)

I just had a prospective client visit to try on a dress and she told me that the trains are a mess right now (they're using bus service to cart people around) and York is flooded. She herself tried to come here via a riverside path and there was no path; the river had overflowed.

As for the lack o' Waitrose, isn't it annoying? I've bummed a ride with my neighbour to the Tesco in the past week, but I miss the brands that only Waitrose seemed to carry. I might have to launch an expedition to Sainsbury's at some point; care to join me? I know that there are local buses that go to Arniston Centre.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yes, we also met a friend in town who had gone to the station to catch a train to London, and given up in disgust; which makes me wonder whether desperance is going to make it back from London...

If you'd like a lift up the Sainsbury's sometime, we could probably offer you one; it's not the lack of transport, just that I'd so much rather shop in Durham (for reasons like the above).

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Hey, cool. I'd be glad to take you up on it. I'd somehow been under the impression that you didn't have a car. I'd much rather shop in Durham too, but obviously Waitrose had other plans.