An Efficient Start to the Week

Trying to make up for my out-of-sync feeling from last week, I decided to make a fresh start today by calling my hairdresser. Every time I've seen her over the past (corona) year I've been reminded of the Catholic confession ritual (as seen in movies etc): "Bless me for I have sinned, it's been four months since my last haircut..." 

Well, I was in luck - I phoned around 9:45 am, she asked when I wanted to come, I said any time today from 11 (or else another day), and she said I was welcome at 11. (It's a very small salon, and she works alone now and only takes one customer at a time, so I had not really counted on her being able to fit me in that quickly.)

So I went for another walk downtown, and passed through the park again. Another mostly cloudy day with a little bit of light rain now and then, but no wind. The advantage of the weather still being on the "cool" side is that we get to enjoy slow progress of all the spring beauty this year (rather than a big explosion of everything all at once).

Blue Horse and red tulips - beautiful combination!

 

Pink magnolia and cherry blossom trees

Getting my hair cut never takes very long once I'm there, so afterwards I decided to try a couple of other errands as well. As I had guessed, the shops also turned out to be less busy on a rainy Monday morning than when I was last in town (on sunny Friday for the Spring Market). 

What I felt I needed most was a pair of new walking shoes, as my old ones were getting rather worn. So I went to a shop where I know they sell the same brand. (I think there was one other customer in the shop, deep in her own meditations in some corner.) I went up to the shop assistant, pointed at my feet and asked: "Do you still sell these?" She said yes, led me to the right shelf, and informed me that besides black (as my old ones) they also had them in blue and beige. I said I'll try them in blue, and told her my size. I tried them on, they felt right, and I bought them. It all took about five minutes...

Left: Old shoe in black. Right: New shoe in blue.

The shoe shop is situated upstairs between two clothes shops - one has to take the escalator from the ground floor of one of those to get up there. When I came back down again, a pair of thin (viscose) summer trousers caught my eye. Pretty much what I'd also been thinking that I needed, and in a colour that would go with other things in my wardrobe... I grabbed a pair of medium size, and bought them (with the right to return them if they didn't fit). That did not take more than 5 minutes either. (And I won't be returning them, as they turned out to fit me comfortably enough - a loose fit rather than tight was what I wanted in this case). 

I had left home around 10:30 to walk into town. By 12 o'clock, I was back home again, my hair neatly cut, and with new shoes and trousers. 1½ hour well spent! :)

No "before" picture, but this is "after"!