I often have to take my son to lesson and it takes me about half an hour to get him there. Sometimes it’s for 4 hours, so I take him and go back home. I then go and get him, that means 2 hours in the car, but I do get 2 at home! Sometimes though, it’s only for 2 hours, in which case I have to find a way to kill time and wait for him.

Now, mid seasons are fine, I can go for a walk, I can sit in the car either watching something, or reading or even catching up on sleep (see previous post). Winter is a bit trickier, but I can still go for walks….Summer? Summer is a b….r! It’s too hot to do anything. Too hot to stay in the car, somebody would probably find me dead! Too hot to go for walks, dead in this case too!! And there is only so much food/clothes shopping I can do, event though I have become brilliant at taking ages to do it ( the food one, there has never been a problem spending hours looking at clothes). I actually go up every lane there is, even if I have very little to buy and I know where everything is, and check out new products, offers, etc. Sometimes I go to the library, it’s nice and cool there and they have wi-fi, so, when I am starting to fall asleep reading (he usually has lesson in the afternoon, right after lunch!), I watch Netflix on my phone.

Unfortunately today, the library was closed. I kind of panicked, I tell you! I had done a little food shopping the day before (yesterday lesson was 2 hours too) and I only needed a few things. It’s a good job there is Google Maps (see another previous post), so I decided that, in order to survive, I had to find a shopping centre nearby. 7 minutes, that is what GM said, and I would be able to switch from my car air conditioning to one I didn’t have to pay for.

I had never realised that place was so close, I knew the place, only with my great orienteering skills, I couldn’t have guessed it was right next to where I was. I wasn’t really looking forward to walking around shops (must have not been felling myself!), getting closer I remembered there was a furniture shop on the other side of the road and I decided I should go there instead. You see, I have been looking for a new sofa for the last two years….Yes, I am a bit picky… So there I go inside the shop. What a relief, nice fresh air, I felt so much better. I scan the place and realise very quickly I wasn’t going to find anything I liked. Next I think, I have nowhere else to go. Yes, there is still the shopping centre, but that means getting to the car again, which in 2 minutes has heated up to about 200 degrees, going across the road and having to get out of it…I couldn’t bring myself to do it, leaving the wonderful temperature…That’s when I decided I was going to stay and do some “fake shopping”.

That involved having a little walk around the place, unfortunately not that big, sitting for a bit on a few sofas to check whether they were comfy enough, talking at length about measurements, colours, fabrics, etc., , with a nice lady, who I am sure thought I was genuinely interested in buying a sofa in her shop. Which I wasn’t. In fact, I thought their furniture and upholstery looked rather hideous! Did I feel bad about wasting her time? No, in fact, I probably helped her to pass her time too! It was lovely. So great that, when I finally left the lady, telling her I was going to go back with the exact measure, I noticed there was another furniture shop nearby, I went in that one too. Did the same routine and wasted some more time feeling cool and refreshed!!

I concluded my 2 hours with 20 minutes food shopping and voilà! It was time to pick up the boy!

E.