By this weekend I'd recovered sufficiently to have a Nice Day Out .... Smitonius' idea .... and , as always , she was quite right .
I always enjoy a trip to Groningen and yesterday , with the sun blazing , it was particularly lively . The cafè on the corner of the market square , where you'd only sit if you had all the time in the world and no desire to eat anything till tomorrow , had a terrace full of comatose clients and no visible staff but did have a very nice black upright piano outside , which a young man was playing Thirties show tunes on . Very tempting , but I decided to save time and chose a cafè a bit further along , which served coffee so strong it gave me palpitations . Perfect ! I had a lot to do .
So off to Cook&Co for a handy gadget to add to YD's ever-growing collection of toys for her kitchen and yet another cookery book ... they might console her for being even more ancient than she was last week . The Italian deli for Lomo Adobado and vinegar . A browse through the C.D.s in a little shop that specialises in harder to find recordings .
Then on to little places with lovely soaps , French stationery , pretty scarves or vintage china . Past a tiny place where you can order a bespoke table or bookshelves , whose owner sat playing the clarinet . Cyclists wove in and out , a child bounced past on a Skippy Ball ( they must be in again . That's the second I''ve seen this week ) . People strolled along with ice creams or bags of cherries from the market .
Then suddenly the sky went black , it poured weirdly warm rain and I discovered I'd brought the umbrella that only opens half way up so nipped into the second-hand bookshop that stocks English paperbacks for a Euro and found six , including Armistead Maupin's Babycakes .
And finally the North African shop for the best dried apricots ever and lots of herby olives . All in all , great fun and not at all an extravagant day out .
No , the real , rather disastrous, loss of control was a few days earlier ... My unbending resolve to disembarrass myself of clutter and Not Buy Any More collapsed in the face of a snail . Meet Stanley ...
He did only cost a Euro ....
6 comments:
What a lovely day. I want to live THERE!
You taunt me again with one of your fabulous Days Out. The thought of French stationery... ahh well. Love the snail and I'm sure he doesn't count as clutter.
I'm really not fond of shopping, but I think I would love shopping with you!
You could not not have bought Stanley!
Sounds wonderful, especially those 'little places' you popped into. Sadly, nothing like that here, just branches of Primark, M&S, pound shops and loads of empty properties.
O my, that is exactly the kind of shopping I absolutely adore and there’s none to be had in the UK, be the town ever so picturesque. Naff tat and expensive ‘crafts’, but not olives and books and a wonderful cakes in a coffee shop.
Could I come for a visit?
Post a Comment