SHERINGHAM DIARY No 62 - You Will Have This Mug

So the Queen's Platijube arrives. Such is the inherent traditionalism and conservativism in our village,our Parish Council have bought each household a celebratory Jubilee mug, to be delivered to you whether you want it or not. No one pausing for one second to consider whether this might not be universally welcomed. You will be taking part, you will be celebrating, you will have this mug.

It is one of the downsides of running your own shop, that you are generally there on your own. This leaves you vulnerable prey for any nutter who may just be passing through, to come talk at you. Of late some of the shopkeepers in The Courtyard have had a visitation from 'The Polish Lady'. She comes in looking like she is going to buy the card that's in her hand, but this is just a ruse. Before you know it you are in receipt of the following:-

' 5G you see, it has been specifikally designed to rot your brain so you won't rebel against the take over of the world in the great reset. A race of synthetics will den eradicate us. Dey have already replaced the queen and family.  Everyone of dem - all synthetics! And this is just the fust phase of complete takeover. Here, I show you this on my phone, what does this tell you. Uh? I tell you what this tells you, we are all being a controlled and a manipulated, but, we are unaware!. What do you say to this?'

'I don't believe a word of what your saying,'

'So, you would let it happen, be unaware, be ignorant, Uh?

'Yes'

'Do not say you were a not informed, soon it will be too late, my friend. - I am doing dis to help you, I could show you more intricate detail'

'No, please, I've heard enough'

'I have the proofs'

At which point she went into the off licence next door.

Think I made this up?   Its near verbatim.

Takings in the shop this May have resembled a sine wave oscillator. Up and down, good day, bad day, very good day, very very bad day, unexpectedly good day, bad day, and so it goes on. All within a very tight band, never excessively high, never quite zero, but occasionally close. Our average spend per day fluctuates between what we'd usually expect and between half and a third of that. No two good days are alike, one day will consist of a handful of really good substantial purchases, another will have a similar total made up of numerous single sub £5 purchases. 

Money is certainly tight, but more importantly confidence is weak. An awful lot of window shopping is going on. It all depends on what income bracket/ demographic is predominately in town on any particular day. The working poor or those still with surplus dosh to service their impulses with.

I am currently attempting to establish a new early morning routine. I've tended to have breakfast vegetating in front of an episode of Deep Space Nine or a posting by The History Hit on You Tube. But if I'm not careful I end up bookending my days with successive waves of a passively viewed TV or film.

This is not a great set up.  My new routine consists of sitting on a chair in our doorway watching the sun rise, or clouds role by, or the early morning rain. I have my breakfast, I read something spiritually uplifting, currently a Taoist text, and do a simple meditation. If I do this I find I am often in a more evenly balanced state through out the day.

I try not to engage with social media or the news until later in the day. First thing in the morning after waking then rising, I don't know about you, but I'm in too delicate a state mentally and emotionally. Being bombarded with the latest atrocity by Russia in Ukraine, the horror of yet another school shooting in America, or the latest in the on going farce from Boris & The Incompetents.- well, at five in the morning I'm just not ready for that. I'm bound to overreact, get angry or despairing. Because all these events also communicate to you there is very little you can do about them. A feeling of impotency and powerlessness feeds into the start of your morning, and from there can establish the complete ruin of civilisation into your daily routine.

I'm trying not to engage with any of this sort of thing until mid day, or at least until I know I'm ready. By which time I'm usually up and running, better able to process and keep in perspective such events. So far this appears to be helping support a more resilient mood. The length of my sleep has been noticeably much better. It also provides me with a bit of writing time which is always a good thing. Tuning in with where I am currently at.

Finding and doing the truly good things, the ones that sustain, provide satisfaction, pleasure and imaginative stimulation. This I find is forever an ongoing endeavour  Running your own business can completely occupy your life, if you let it. Overtime it is bound to encroach.  All those other things you love doing get easily curtailed or sidelined by business deadlines and imperatives. Sometimes I just have to re-draw the boundaries and pare down what I expect myself to do or be capable of. The worst Master can be my own neurotic imagination, feeding the desire for approval, fear of disapproval, of what will happen if I do or don't do this. Basically fear of failure.

There are of course the evenings when you are just too tired,  or emotionally drained by the day you've had, to take any initiative. That's when we both avidly indulge in watching Antiques Road Trip, and its malformed cousin Celebrity Antiques Road Trip.  The best of the latter being the episode with Danny Dyer and his daughter. Where Danny attempts a cockney shmooze, to obtain a large discount on an antique out of an elderly lady proprietor, who doesn't really know who he is. Its diamond, yeah, diamond TV.

A very young little boy, carried into our shop in his Mother's arms, head resting sleepily on her shoulder. She was taking him around the shop, and pointing things out to him, she said :-

'What do you think should we buy - a Tea Towel?'

'I don't like tea'

' I know but...'

'I do like towels though'

That boy has the makings of a keen mind.