Stop at stationer's to buy a drawing pencil. Clerk asks what I'm looking for. Me: A drawing pencil. C: A pen? Me: No, pencil. Several more rounds of same. Try saying to write with but this leads us back to pen. Add with lead, but can see this is scarcely helpful, and in any case it isn't actually lead, of course. Eventually translation assistance is summoned. (And the Greek word appears to include 'grafia', which is logical). I am shown the extensive pencil display. Ah, says the clerk: Pen-seeel. And she sounds like she's correcting my pronunciation rather than trying to get it right.
Meet J for coffee at Harry's. And stop at the minute watchmaker's shop (shop minute, not watchmaker) where we usually go. My watch stopped running some time in the night, and our assumption was that it needed a new battery. Watchmaker says that the battery is good; the problem is with the works, which he refers to as the machine. Might be fixable, but not cheaply, and even more expensive if the works need replacing. He could sell me a similar one from the dusty collection in his window for €40 (we ascertain that the faded tag says €50). It's a good price for a Seiko, although the benefit is mutual, as the style is now unfashionable, and while I like it he would probably have trouble shifting it and knows it. We decide to think about it, and ask for the battery back. He's scornful - why would we want an old battery, we wouldn't put an old battery in a new watch. But we take it home, where J tests it with the voltmeter. And finds that the battery is, in fact, dead. Make due allowance for watchmaker's deficient social skills - he's always been a bit awkward - but not entirely happy with the encounter. To be continued....
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