Haircut day. J thinks we'll have quite a wait (our unisex place doesn't do appointments) but I have a method. When I take a book, electronic or otherwise, I get taken immediately with no opportunity to read. And so it is this morning. Now good until February. From there to the little cancer charity shop by St Lazarus for a look round.
Then a check on the jewellery shop owned by the Ukrainian girl who is our favourite jewellery maker, source of many granddaughter birthday presents. It's closed, the old arched wooden doors secured with a large padlock. Not easy to inquire either, as the shops on either side are closed as well. It's rather worrying - is she ill, has she gone bankrupt? Her parents farm in Ukraine and were OK last spring, but that was a long time ago....But all is well. As we're looking at the (falling) prices in a nearby real estate agent's window our friendly jeweller appears behind to greet us. Business is slow in the winter, so she was chatting with a friend until she spotted us. Yes, she is well. Her mother was ill in April so she went back to Ukraine then. Fortunately they live near neither Donetsk nor Kiev and can grow some of their own food. The cities are frightening, with military ID checks and press gang style removal of young men. And everything is expensive.
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