The idealism of youth.

Picture the scene, three years ago a cocky white middle class 14 year old and his mates parading round the store drinking red bull, his jeans trendily imitating a builders, showing the gross builder's bum, his baby face surrounded by unkempt medium length hair.
Fast forward three years, the same lad, now 18 was out in the car park pushing trolleys an inane grin upon his face and his hair one mass of ragged dreadlocks.

"Oh my god" I thought i'd seen the last of him when he left school and stopped calling into the store.
I took time to get to know him when he passed through the foyer on his way to the canteen.
Eddie is his name and he's studying music at college, he's still a rebel but he needs to earn some money in order to go to uni.
He's cool, not innoffensive and we've sort of connected in a strange sort of way. He really doesn't want to conform and as I found out he should be working on the tills but prefers to be in the car park (more scope for skiving) so he finds any means he can to work out there.
Three months have passed and he has got progressively sloppy with his appearance 'til saturday when he was needed on the tills and the manageress had a fit when she saw him!!
"Eddie" she said, "what will the customers think with you looking like that"(his hair was becoming more matted, he hadn't ironed his shirt and he was wearing braids around his neck which he hasn't taken off for four years) "Go home", she said "sort yourself out and come back in an hour."
He came to me in the foyer, looking pained, "flaming manageress" he said "why did they give me the job in the first place if they don't like my hair?" "If they hadn't given me the crappy job in the first place then I wouldn't have to quit the crappy job"
We spoke at length about the pros and cons of him quitting over a fashion statement and although he concluded that he wasn't changing for anyone, he conceded that he could compromise by tying his hair neatly while working and fastening his top collar button to cover his braids.
Half an hour later he left and didn't return. Wether he's jacked in the job, I don't know...watch this space, i'll find out on Friday.

I admire him for his principles on wanting to retain his individuality, but he would only have to make small concessions and as he once said to me
"I don't seem to be able to get a job very easily the way I look".
I hope he comes back and sees his studies through, then when he's a successful musician and can dress how he pleases, he can look back at his time at the supermarket and be proud that he saw it through.

This library is very popular, there a constant stream of takers for the thirty or so computers available.
Son-in-law is busy so hasn't been to upgrade computer yet...it's my own fault for telling him that there wasn't any hurry...I should learn to stop telling lies!! I've been busying myself doing more active things, the dance troupe has been meeting quite a lot socially and yesterday I spent the day in Halifax attending an arabic dance workshop led by Jaqui Jamal, a fab dancer from darn sarf who came up north to give us northerners a few tips on the various egyptian walks. I practised the geese, camels, panthers and horses
A very funny sight watching 25 predominately middle aged women prancing around , stalking around and wobbling around in leotards and full skirts. It was great fun though even if I was exhausted and ached a little after, I know i'm getting too old for this and won't ever improve but one has to keep going in order to retain any normal level of fitness
Friday night at work seemed rather boring until nine o'clock when I observed about 10 youngsters floating in and out of the store. I tryed to weigh them up and concluded that they were not under the influence of anything albeit they were a little rowdy, their average age was probably only about 15..nothing to worry about there then...WRONG!!! the short story is that four of the "gang" waited outside the store entrance for a lone middle class youth who was shopping alone (apparently there had been an altercation on his way in) and hijacked him in a dark corner. The first I knew of this was when the victim came rushing in saying he had had a knife held at his neck, a true account as follow up events proved to reveal.
Fortunately he only had a slight surface wound but was visibly shaken. Of course the police were called, video footage scanned and hopefully the assailants will be identified.
I am surprised at how I took in my stride. When my store manager asked me how I had been affected by the incident, I shrugged my shoulders and heard myself saying "what can one do? it is a symptom of the society we live in"... NOt good, I don't want to live in a society like this.......

Sorry I didn't reply to my comments earlier but my computer has gone kaput and soooo frustrating!! I don't know when it will be repaired but son-in-law says he will try to sort it out a.s.a.p, I will probably be buying lots of new parts and upgrades for it so it could be quite a while.

In the meantime as I am in town I have popped into the library for a free hour's session.
Have you seen the video on youtube of a lady on the beach singing away to the radio with her headphones on while her family unmercifully videod her and all the neighbouring sunbather's reactions? Well, I am sat next to a caribbean lady who is doing a similar thing . She is watching a video of Kylie with her headset on and is merrily singing away, unaware that we can hear her I don't know wether to tell her or not as it is rather amusing

Things are pretty much back to normal in the Isadora household, dance classes, language group, and the odd couple of shifts at work.
not being able to blog has meant I have spent more time in the garden and have potted up loads of geraniums and begonias in the greenhouse...and...I have been experimentally cooking some spanish dishes for t'old man to try, the most successful being a type of bean stew with chorizo.

The supermarket has been busy as there seems to have been a rush on beer, sausages, baps and all things similar for the inevitable barbecues that the good weather has spawned.
The only thing out of the norm was an incident on Saturday afternoon, down the clothes aisle a toddler decided to do a "NO 2" on the floor (gawd knows what his parents were doing) and an elderly lady almost skidded on it. Pity the poor cleaner who had to clean it up.

On that distateful note I will say goodbye don't know when i'll be back in, probably a couple of days time when I come into town again, failing that, don't forget me will you?, lol.

What has made me smile this Easter?

1... In church on Sunday, the teenage boy whose courageous mother dedicates herself to raising her two autistic sons, the teenager being one of them.
Why did he make smile?... because as he walked down for communion , he walked past the organ player and placed his hands very firmly over his ears with a pained expression on his face

2...In my absent next door neighbour's garden where for over an hour their friend (who lives the other side of the fence) was standing guard over the hens. she was waiting for dusk when they would be returning to their coop, she was afraid the foxes might get them if she went in the house

3...Yesterday, on hearing my daughters' animated conversations over lunch... they hadn't seen each other for a while and their closeness showed despite their thirteen year age gap.

Do you remember when I mistakenly deleted my video of the manifestacion in Madrid?
Well I still regret losing it but I looked on Youtube and have found a video someone else posted which was filmed on the same day and with the same song being sung. This is an overview of the event whereas mine was more personal with shots of my friends singing away to the song. Nevertheless I can now recapture the emotion of the day and I have a couple of photos too

Me and Pilar (children's grandma) outside the PP head office on route to the event....Forever a supermarket worker with carrier bag in tow...Doh!!
disclaimer...the politics of the manifestacion are not necessarily those of the blogger but of the half a million people who attended the event

I often receive email chain letters but only post the occasional one.
This one I thought was worthy of reproducing

Azanmig huh!!!

Don't even think about using spell check!!!!!!!!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs?
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a
rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr
the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit
and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll
raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not
raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?
yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed
tihs forwrad it.

ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ

The sun was shining so bright this afternoon that I did my ironing outdoors on the patio, admittedly I was wearing  a jumper and not the bikini top I wore the last time I did my ironing in the open air, then again it is only the beginning of April

Just before I retire to my bed, i'll leave you with a couple more snips from the comic verse book.

1
TICKLE RHYME
"Who's that tickling my back"
said the wall
"Me" said the Caterpillar?
"I'm learning to crawl"

Ian Serraillier

2
BATTY
The baby bat
Screamed out in fright
"Turn on the dark
I'm afraid of the light"

Shel Silverstein

Goodnight Xx

I just can't bring myself to throw out Bella's childhood books. It's no good they will have to go.
Well maybe not all of them, i'll get rid of the numerous Enid Blyton paperbacks, the Roald dahls,The Horrible History series and the Robin Jarvis books but how can I possibly get rid of the hardbacks 'Tales from Beatrix Potter', A.A Milnes 'The house at Pooh corner' and 'Winnie the Pooh' amongst others.
"NO, these will have to stay, what if I do get grandchildren eventually, I could read these stories to them".
Then there's the 'Children's Treasury of Milligan', i'll keep this a while longer 'til i've had a scan through it at my leisure.. and what to do with this one i've just been reading.. it's called 'The Kingfisher book of comic verse', selected by Roger McGough.
There are some gems in there i.e.
1
THERE WAS A YOUNG LADY FROM iCKENHAM
There was a young lady from Ickenham
Who went on a bus trip to Twickenham
She drank too much beer
Which made her feel queer
So she took off her boots and was sick-in-em
anonymous.
2
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
I put 10p in my Piggy Bank
To save for a rainy day
it rained the very next morning
Three cheers, Hip Hip hooray.
Spike Milligan

I don't know where she got this book from, i'm sure I didn't buy it her, yes this one can go on the redundant pile.

What about the numerous ladybird books, there are some great little classics amongst them and what's these?? The wide Awake club's 'WAK SNAX' and 'WAK JOKES'!!
I can see i'll be a while yet

            cuck  oo cuck oo cuck
         oo cuck oo cuck oo cuck oo
              cuck oo cuck oo cuck
                          
                                    Roger McGough

I once had a blog friend
He was a farmer
He named a piglet after me
it's name was Isadora Piglet
It's probably streaky bacon now.

                            
                                    

Today being Palm Sunday means it is the beginning of Holy Week (Semana Santa) and many spanish towns including Zamora will be having religious processions every day in the streets, with the marches of Penitence and the carrying of the floats(don't know the correct name for them) depicting the scenes of the Virgin Mary and of Christ's crucifixion.
There is an excellent museum in Zamora dedicated to the imagery of Holy week so while I was there I went inside to look.
Further into the town I snapped and admired this hoarding advertising the museum

Only kidding....April fool
Only it's not a statement entirely in the realms of fantasy.
I returned to my 'Greeter's' position at the front of the store to find that the human races' shopping habits has remained the same in my ten weeks absence.
I chastised two passing bobbies who had popped in for a sandwich and a coke, I asked them why they hadn't cleared the area of the local riff raff and the professional thieves alike whilst I had been away.
They took the remark in good sport and stated that they thought they had!
I can assure them that the thieves are still aplenty, for on my first shift back a very respectable looking family were stopped at the final exit pushing a full shopping trolley out without paying.
The male's remark was that he was going to the cash machines to withdraw money then he was going to return into the store and pay for the goods.
Honestly Who doesn't know that you don't take your goods out of the store until they're paid for
We all knew what his game was but on this occasion he was allowed to go back and pay for the £200's worth of goods he had. His pretty little daughter skipped happily alongside the couple... I wonder what tricks she will grow up learning.
In my absence we have a new customer service manager a thirty something male with a trendy blond haircut and endearing manner(so far!), an improvement on the female who left late last year. We still have one 'ogress' of a manageress on board but hopefully she will be transferred soon.