A Travesty Against Mankind!

One of todays events was meeting up with Anne at Merry Hill, whilst Alison and I were there shopping for stuff for the house. Over the past six months or so a tradition has been established, a tradition that works for all involved. What happens is this: we meet up, we go to Starbucks (or meet in Starbucks), we have a drink, then Anne and I stay in Starbucks nattering, taking the piss out of each other and watching the girls go by while Alison retreats to the safety of shops such as TK Maxx that are beneath the aspiring intellectual likes of Anne and myself. Or something. Perhaps it's more that our deplorable gutter lesbian (well, male pseudo-lesbian in my case) minds are better suited to a dimly lit coffee house than a brightly spot-lit clothes mart.

Anyway, today it did not go according to plan. Today the tradition collapsed in a heap, crying for its mother. STARBUCKS HAD CLOSED! We don't understand why. It was perfect. Another Starbucks (which I'm afraid I must term a pseudo-Starbucks due to its lacking several key features) has opened up on the upper level, but this is a crappy open plan food-court style Starbucks which lacks both the dim lighting and the comfy chairs (key features, as I said). It really wasn't the same. Even the potential for looking through the glass balcony down at passing cleavage was not enough to make up for it. It dampened the mood, which was not good when you consider that the mood was already in danger of developing mildew.

By the time we met up with Anne, we'd already bought a fair amount of stuff, including a stylish lampshade for the "Top Room" (the room I sit in as I type, which is more of a second living room than a study) and a funky Bath Pillow from Bhs. I don't know why I bothered saying 'including', because with the exception of one other thing which I'm also going to mention, that was all we bought. The other thing was a gift for my friends' new daughter, who, judging by the pictures I've seen so far, already has set her sights on Dad's computer.

After our coffee break we wandered aimlessly, while Anne tried to work out who the guy was that had been standing opposite with his (presumably) wife and daughter while we were "in" Starbucks. He wore a silly hat, and Anne was sure he used to be in Neighbours or something. She may of course have worked out who he was by now. The wandering aimlessly was accompanied by the usual sorts of comments, see entries relating to previous trips for details. I recounted to Anne a rather disturbing conversation I had with my Dad about this week's episode of Tipping the Velvet, and his perception that watching it falls under the heading of research as far as I'm concerned.

Eventually we ended up in the Virgin Megastore (as Anne puts it "the only virgin you'll find in Merry Hill"), where Alison finally found a birthday present for her mother, and I succumbed to a purchase that had been tempting me since the first time I went in there earlier on. I am now the proud owner of a Transformers Autobot t-shirt. Yes, proud owner. I am a geek, and I am not ashamed.

As a brief postscript, I have an anecdote about the a-ha gig that Alison told me this morning. I mentioned how they finished on Locust and it was an odd track to finish on. It's a quite mellow song, and so kinda fitting as a final encore type of song, and when Morten introduced it he said it was "a little nightcap for you". What Alison told me this morning was that she heard a girl in the row behind us shout "I wish!" at that point. LOL.