Window on a weird day

I haven't cropped this image much as I want it to remain explicable. This is a window within a window of a business in Cheltenham, that deals with 'luxury serviced apartments'. I thought it was an art gallery, but luckily took a reference shot as well. My friend Dave and I were attempting to cross the road in the Montpellier area when I spotted it.

We were on our way to Zizzi for lunch, having been for a spot of light shopping (ha ha! ) in L'Occitane and a fancy kitchen shop that fortunately did not have anything I wanted. This Black Friday phenomenon is extraordinary: people giving away drinks in the shops, ice cream in the streets.... I still wish 'they' could find another name for it. Aren't 'Black Friday' and 'Black Wednesday' associated with spectacular financial crashes in the UK economy in the 80s and 90s? For me it was pay day, which is why I was plastic-happy.

Zizzi turned out to be in a converted church of enormous proportions! The pizza oven is on the former altar. Very odd. We munched our way through three courses and attempted to catch up on three months' worth of news. Difficult, but we made a start.

After a couple of hours we wandered back up to 'the other end' of the promenade, where we'd started out, and went to Waterstone's where Dave let me choose a book for Christmas (it's a tradition). We were aiming to cut through the House of Fraser store (Cavendish house) to get to another shopping area, but we got waylaid by some Black Friday bargains. By the time we got out of there, the other shopping place had shut, so I never did get to see their decorations. We went back to Nero in Cav House instead.

Did I mention that the bus services to/from Stroud have changed? A long wait for the last bus back to Stroud (it was 20 minutes late) was followed by a sad encounter in Stroud itself. I found a teenager sobbing in an alley, and eventually managed to walk with her most of the way up the street to where she lives, and to get some of her story. She was much the worse for drink. Unfortunately she ran off from the bench where we sat down, but was joined by some of the teens who apparently know her, who were hanging out on the street by the youth club. I went back to the children's home where she lives, to report on what I'd seen, as there was another person involved, who was apparently abandoned/lost in the big park, which is where the young people go to drink at weekends. The staff seemed grateful that I wasn't a neighbour who had come to complain about anti-social behaviour. They are used to getting a bad press.

Now, I am not about to drop everything to become a youth worker for the 10-20 age group, but I do think that as a society we fail to provide a a range of outlets where young people are welcome to socialise and mingle with other human beings in their leisure time. No wonder McDonald's and the park are so popular. Do we forget that young people, however antisocial their behaviour, are also vulnerable and fearful?

Here the rant endeth. What an extraordinary day! Tomorrow, the school fair and the top toy stall....

Oh, and if this experience teaches me anything apart from the obvious thing about caring for the vulnerable, it's that I am Definitely Becoming My Mother.