The After Work Shopping Crowd.

Memories of long ago.

With the seemingly sudden onset of darkness an hour earlier, the middle of the afternoon for some is night set for us. I had a late enough lesson yesterday afternoon which saw me head home in the dark. Well, almost toward home as I detoured via Kohfidisch Spar. A Monday following a cold weekend spent in leisure pants equates to less than ideal levels in our larder. Enough said, the thought of buying a few yummy items made me take on this slight detour.

I think I arrived there at a quarter past five and as I rushed around the various isles, I noticed what seemed like mainly single men or exhausted looking mums who know better than to return home empty handed after a long day at work.

Having grown up with school uniforms and fortunately having continued with plain black clothes at work for many years ( sounds like I worked as a detective and come to think of it, hair salons are fantastic information exchanges ), I don't play dress up like many other women do. Although my Goldilocks have been expertly refreshed by mum last Thursday ( blonde again! ) and perhaps I had tucked it up more stylishly than usual because there were two or three men of a certain age aimlessly wheeling their suspiciously empty trolley up and down the cheese section throwing furtive glances my way.

Straightaway, I surreptitiously checked if my hair was standing up, nose running, or if toilet paper was stuck to one of my shoes. Being the happy wearer of Bob's ring, it only dawned on me in the ice-cream isle that these men were looking for dates. Supermarkets are the best place to find your soul mate after all...back in the day I couldn't wait to finish work and stylishly manoever a shopping trolley in the vegetable section. (Ah, fond memories of Park-a-laanie) Contraband was bought somewhere else, mostly the sweet shop out of town.

What would we do without supermarkets and their good old fashioned way of connecting like minded people over food? It really is beyond me that most couples nowadays hook up online. Let's see what the divorce rate will look like in a decade, seeing that online dating professes to find your ideal partner...

Biggi