She who must be obeyed has a variable weekend, and this week it falls on a Tuesday and Wednesday. As is often the case on her days off, we find ourselves in Central. The official purpose is to seek out some seedless grapes which we have previously enjoyed thanks to the reduced levels of spitting required. No joy there, so I compensated by buying a couple of doughnuts. Then there was the inevitable trip to the B2S stationery area.
She who must be obeyed has a thing about stationery, particularly pens. We (she) can’t walk past a stationery store without her just popping in for at least an hour in order to stock up on writing equipment. Of course we rarely write anything other than with a keyboard so the pens just lie around until they get lost or dry out; but having them around the house gives her some sort of comfort and it is a petty vice compared to, say, pearls.
So off she trots into B2S and emerges an aeon with a bag of goodies. Heading back to the car park I discover a previously unvisited area of the Central Mall selling Muji; joy, stationery porn! I can remember my son taking me into Muji in London many years ago and being captivated by the minimalist, cute, very Japanese products. If I still used business cards, they would be in my brushed alloy Muji case; and I still have a working Muji pen somewhere. I explain to she who must be obeyed that, if stationery stores were food outlets, then B2S would be KFC and Muji would have at least one Michelin star, but without the price difference.
So for the second time in a day, a stationery outlet is raided, this time with my full involvement. I end up with a tiny calendar I have no use for, a red pen (ditto) and a little notepad on a ring on which I will never write notes with the red pen I don’t need. SWMBO decides on a nail clipper which is no use to me because I remove my nails with my teeth as evolution or god intended, depending on how much of a gullible fool you are your belief system. Oh, and of course she needs another pen.
