Sunday, December 27/2015

Sunday. Feels like the third Sunday in a row, as it follows Christmas and Boxing Day. Ordinary time struggling back to life. Go to the shop round the corner for our usual Cypriot Sunday Mail and find there isn't one. It's taking a holiday, probably announced in Saturday's paper, which we never buy, and no doubt accompanied by the weekly tv guide (not all that useful) and the puzzle page (quite a good one).

 Lidl open. Mother and two children singing Christmas songs outside the entrance, not especially well, and collecting money for same. Probably East European of some description, as they're all fair haired. It's a fairly common occurrence here, not really talented enough to qualify as busking but a very slight cut above simple begging. Rather shamefully cubs and cadets also engage in this form of Christmas fund raising, so it's not unusual to see groups of five or six of them engaged in half-hearted off-key carol singing, collecting tin in the face of each exiting shopper, rather than providing an actual service like car washing or selling cookies.