Monday 9th January

I was out wandering through the shops on Marylebone High Street yesterday, a bit bored, a bit curious – you never know what you might see.  Not that I needed anything really, and the besides the dog-end of the Sales were on, and I thought I might just see something new or interesting, or just plain sensible that I didn’t know I was looking for at all.  Serendipity is the term for that fortunate co-incidence of finding exactly the right thing at precisely the right time, and more importantly – seizing the moment, and buying it.  So often I have said to myself, ‘Do you really need that jacket,’ or ‘I didn’t even know that ………..had written this one, still, it will still be here next week, I’ll buy it then.’ And of course, next week you cannot find the bookshop, let alone the book, or everywhere you go they shake their heads and say ‘I’m so sorry, that is out of print at the moment.’   Or you are looking through your jackets to find just the right one to go with those tan slacks you bought at the end of last summer, and nothing is quite right, and you suddenly remember the jacket you saw last week, and yes, cream linen would have been just perfect with the slacks.  But the shop has sold out, and they aren’t sure but they might be getting some more stock in next week, but you know the moment has passed you by forever,  So now, if I see something that I like I buy it, because as sure as oeufs are oeufs it will be gone by tomorrow.

So there I was without a real idea what I was doing and my mind a million miles away, as it so often is these days.  I wandered into a shoe shop, quickly scanning the Sale racks and seeing nothing that remotely interested me when I heard  a scream and a kerfuffle near the entrance.  A pigeon had wandered into the shop, and was quietly examining the shoes on the lower shelves.  The shop assistants who could not have been more than twenty were looking terrified and almost running behind the customers.  At last the manageress came over to see what the excitement was all about.  She too looked terrified and at a loss what to do.  She tried shooing it but this just made the bird flutter its feathers, rise into the air and swoop over their heads to the back of the shop.  The manageress started to ask customers to leave, and I was walking past I couldn’t help remarking. “I think she is looking for a size five, but you may find she is a bit pigeon-toed.”  Hahaha …