red balloon

My plan for today was defeated before I had rolled out of bed. I had intended to take a trip to the supermarket at 8am in the hope that there would not be so many morose, dull-eyed shoppers at that time in the morning. However, having not got home from babysitting until 12.45am, the idea of setting my alarm for 7.30am on a Saturday did not appeal. Although to be honest, I did not need an alarm - I never really need an alarm - my body clock wakes me up at 7am or before pretty reliably regardless of the day of the week.

So instead I got out of bed 25 minutes before I needed to go out for breakfast - I had breakfast with 6 lovely ladies which was a wonderful affair. I then headed into Broadmead to try and get a cheap haircut. Boy do I dislike shopping malls. There's just too much stuff and too many people all bustling about. As I fought my way through the masses I wondered whether we will see a physical depletion in the number of shoppers when they finally realise that they cannot keep borrowing and spending money they just don't have. The economy cannot deal with this.

Anyhow, the cheapest hairdressers I could find was a no appointments place and my wait was going to be an hour, so I resolved to go and buy a magazine. I went into Waterstones and after a quick scan around the shop which failed to help me locate the magazines, I resolved to buy a book. There are only a couple of magazines that I would want to read - either about photography or running - and actually, I really don't particularly like buying any magazine as you read them a couple of times, and then they're discarded. I'd much rather pay a bit more money and get a book that will take me a lot longer to read and that I am happy to have on my bookshelves for a lifetime. So that's exactly what I did. I purchased Toxic Childhood. This is the product of three years research (and thirty years experience) of looking into the influence of contemporary culture on children's development. I am sure I will share little nuggets of information with you as I read it. (But don't hold your breath - I am reading another four books at the moment, and this one isn't top priority.)

Having had my hair cut by a lovely South African lady, I went outside to be greeted by the sound of incredible drumming. There was quite a crowd gathered round the performer so I went to take a look. The drummer was a little girl who looked about 7 or 8 years old. What a legend. Here parents then accompanied her - they were genuinely good. I was thoroughly impressed at this girl who sounds like she's been drumming since she was in the womb.


And this was one of the onlookers - I was rather taken by the photo opportunity this subject lent themselves to and wished once more for a super duper wonderous camera that allows me to do far more than my phone lets me.