kindness of strangers

The blogging experience has made me very comfortable talking to strangers. Like doing the mothers' website breastfeeding advice forum made me stop when I heard a pregnant woman in Tesco talking about breastfeeding and thrush, and just have to give her some unsolicited advice. Sometimes I can't stop myself being overly friendly.

But the lady in the Healthfood shop today was the best. I know her from there and seeing her cycling round the town, but no more than to say hello to. I was asking for alternatives to agnus castus (hormone regulator) that I could take while breastfeeding. And of course she said 'Udo's Oil', which I knew about but I was hoping for a different answer. Because it's so hard to take, it's so oily. So I asked her for the capusles and she totally gave out to me like an amused and exasperated mammy and told me to go get the bottle and not be such a baby. And gave me short shrift when I said I'd bought it so many times and used it three times and let it go off in the fridge, at €15 a go...

So I was sent away with a bottle of oil and a flea in my ear. So I'm off to get a carton of pineapple juice... which we all know makes unpalatable things taste less unpalatable...

But that's not the point. The point is the joy there is to be found in laughing and being familiar with strangers in shops, especially at Christmas time.