security, instructions, gardening

While Heidi is trying on a dress, I talk to the shop manager about security tags - those nasty devices which make a noise when someone tries to steal garments to which they are attached. She tells me that shoplifters are in for a shock if they manage to get nicked clothes past the sensor. Apparently when you remove a tag from a garment without the appropriate device, it bleeds ink and ruins the clothes. "But", she says "when I was working at Dickens and Jones, young men would come in wearing stolen jeans with ink all over them. They wore them with pride as a badge of honour."

Nick the electrician fits a new ceiling lamp. It is rather an awkward one to fit. "Would you like to see the instructions? " I ask. "I usually look at them afterwards" he says, which appeals to me, because that is what I tend to do, when assembling or fitting something.

Gardening: I like it for two reasons. First, because I like being in the garden. And second, I suppose because helping things that I want to grow, grow, and stopping things that I don't want to grow, from growing, invests me with a sense of power.