A tale of two shops

A blip taken almost at the end of the day, and it tells a story...

It's been a much needed quiet Saturday. I got the ironing done - a mundane but necessary chore. I nearly gave up half way through but plodded on. G took this picture because it records where the non-precious items (bed linen) get ironed. Yup, every week, two single sheets, two single duvet covers and four pillowcases are dropped off, and they get pressed and delivered back a couple of days later. We've done it for ages. Decades even, in fact, my dad's work shirts used to get sent here when my mum was alive. That's how long we've used them. (At 10p a shirt, it was so worth it!)

On the left is the tailor who adjusts curtain lengths while we wait at a cost so low, it isn't worth G getting her sewing machine out. There was an incident sometime in the late 1990's. G & I were enjoying a quiet day off when we heard sirens going past our window (this was in the old flat). We found out later that the laundry had burnt down! That would explain why the clothes we had left with them hadn't been returned for over a week! They offered no compensation when they started up again. In between, they operated out of another shop in another area and used a bicycle for deliveries. The mind boggles at how much laundry they carried on one bike!

We discovered later, that the fire was caused by a short circuit in the tailor's shop. It quickly spread to the laundry, both businesses having lots of fabric. Some much-loved clothes were lost, which is why they get done at home now. It took a while for the laundry to commence normal operations, and I can say, we really missed them. We tried other nearby businesses, but the bedding either came back smelling of cigarette smoke or they were more expensive.

It is the last weekend before Ramadan begins and stores are offering significant discounts. We went to the local wine shop to get a couple of bottles of Bardolino but they were out of stock, so we had to race to another branch before they closed. It was worth the effort.