It Rained

Crash Bang

2 claps of thunder just as F rolled Donkey in the door, having arrived home from laiki.

Then it rained; gently at first, building into a downpour.

Long before it arrived at downpour status F had taken her bag and wandered out again and I watched her head up the road to the corner shop. 

Beer Tahini Feta - that is what she had been repeating to herself.

The rain reached downpour status and I could see an elderly woman neighbour in the street with her walking frame; caught in the rain. By the time the shop girl had managed  to run out to her with a flattened cardboard box to use as an umbrella, she was already wet to the skin. And by the time she had been carefully guided into the shelter of the shop doorway they were both dripping like shags. 

A little later the rain had stopped and the shop girl was accompanying our neighbour home, carrying her few groceries. It seemed to take forever (the neighbour is very slow but goes out for a turn along the street most days) and the shop girl stayed with her every shuffled step of the way.  You wouldn't get that service from any corner shop or mini supermarket we know of in UK.

Sleeping with my feet pressed on the window.

(NB there are two neighbourhood shops in the same direction - 2 blocks to the one F uses because it was the only one when we came here; a strange old-fashioned place with a mish mash of shelving, cheerful staff we have come to know, and a bit of everything you could possibly want. It's almost like a country store from times past. It also does an excellent line in bioethical foodstuffs and all that strange stuff F eats like seeds and nuts and flour from unusual things. And the staff come out to talk to me while I wait for F to buy stuff.

The shop at one block distance from us is new, modern, glitzty, favoured by Mr B, and has more in common with a UK supermarket than F is comfortable with; too much over packaged, over-processed stuff to start with (Mr B's kind of food), and staff who can barely manage 'gia sas' when you roll up to pay. So it was nice to see the girl from the new shop walk our elderly neighbour home again.)