Elizabeth is an unusual girl. Up until last year she didn’t have a smart phone and vehemently opposed the idea of getting one. I eventually force one upon her for a school trip but since then it has sat with a flat battery, little used. She’s not on any social media sites and has no desire to be. She’s not interested in clothes or makeup, does not have pierced ears, and has an ant colony for pets.
In her 14 years of life she had also never visited a hairdresser…until yesterday. I have suggested a hairdresser visit over the years but she’s never been interested and so instead I just trimmed the ends from time to time. I only managed to get her there yesterday on the promise of cake.
And so it was, yesterday afternoon we found ourselves in Foodstory eating cake and gazing out at the world. As we sat there I saw a middle-aged woman across the road loading shopping into the boot of her car. She dropped something. It looked like a napkin but I wasn’t sure. Then she deliberately dropped her cigarette and stepped on it. I hate when smokers do that. Where do they think their cigarette butts end up? In our waterways, that’s where. Then she proceeded to the driver’s side of the car but on the front bonnet she noticed something so she returned to the rear of the car and picked up the napkin she’d dropped – obviously deliberately I realised now – and wiped the car bonnet clean with it. Then she discarded the napkin on the ground a second time and got in the car.
Without thinking I ran out of the café and across the road, picked up her rubbish, knocked on her car window, smiled and said, “You dropped your tissue.” Then I handed it to her. She said, “Thank you” and took it. Then drove off.
It was very satisfying to give a litterer back her litter. I only wish I’d given her cigarette butt back to her too. I would not have thought a late middle-aged woman with a nice car and with what looked like an elderly mother in the passenger’s seat, would so flagrantly litter in our city or even non-flagrantly. I just never imagined this demographic to be the litterer. I assumed it would be young men and teenagers but perhaps this is unfair as my own son is a young man and not only would he never litter but he also picks up other people’s litter. Shame on that woman. Does she not want to live in a clean and beautiful environment? Or does she expect others to clean up after her. I’m disappointed with my sex and a fellow Aberdonian.
Today is Easter Sunday. Ben made us all hot cross buns yesterday which he does every year. They were delicious. We all sat and watched Life of Brian which we’ve seen before but it’s just as funny on subsequent views and makes for a good Easter film. This morning we all received some fine dark chocolate from the Easter Bunny. I asked for a small amount of good quality chocolate as I’d rather have less of something really excellent than large amount of crap stuff. The best chocolate is very dark and without any cow’s milk in it. Life is too short for second-rate chocolate.
And here’s a Monty Python video from Life of Brian.
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