Locked In!!!
To be honest, I’m struggling to write this post. Luckily enough I have a story to share otherwise this post would have been one paragraph or possibly even one sentence. This is pretty much how I have felt since Christmas. As my 2017 Plans post said I’d struggled with some minor health issues which have continued and I’ve had a couple more bad migraines, bizarrely as my life is hardly stressful. I thought using a Habit Tracker in my BuJo (Bullet Journal, see 2017 Plans post) would help “shuffle” me along if I could see at a glance what and how I’m doing and I like ticking things off lists. Not happening. I bought a fitness tracker and for the last 3 days have been doing a minimum of 10,000 steps. I did hope my trips to and around the supermarket were 10,000 steps but turns out they are barely half that so I’m topping this up with extra walks.
It was on one of these extra walks that I got locked in a shop. I had only gone out to top up my steps so thought I’d get a bungy strap for my new bike (which I still haven’t ridden). I had been merrily pootling around the bottom of the store trying to choose from about 20 different types and sizes. When I wandered back up to the till, no one was there and the shutter on the front of the store was down. WTF? I waited for a few minutes thinking maybe if there was only one person in then they had left to use the loo. I guessed that I wasn’t locked in for the night as the lights were still on, the till was still on and the front doors open; just the shutter down. We had never seen the shop shut in the afternoon before. Pretty much these shops are open all hours.
An empty aisle
Shut!
I stood by the till in sight of one of the many, many cameras (how had they missed me). After a while I tried ringing Neil. His phone was ringing then just going to answerphone. After about 20mins I tried Duncans phone (our friends on Samji). Luckily I had his number and they were on their boat in the marina. Duncan went round to Gleda and Neil rang me. I had been starting to get a bit stressed. Not worried about starving or anything. Plenty of sweets, crisps and soft drinks (and buckets if I needed the loo!) but just about not knowing how long I was going to have to wait. Neil rang me back (he’d indadvertedly put his phone on silent) then he walked into town and rang me from outside to say that there was a sign on the shutter saying the shop was closed from 3pm to 4pm. I had been locked in since just after 3 and it was ten minutes to four when Neil got there so I told him not to flag down a policeman, I’d rather not be led outside by the police, but we’d wait until 4pm.
There must be 20 camera angles on those screens
As Neil sat on the steps, the clock struck 4 and the shutter started to move. Two girls were crossing the square (must be a remote controlled shutter). As they approached Neil said, in Spanish, “my wife is inside”. He said the look on their faces were priceless. They didn’t speak much English, one kept saying sorry and the other went to the till, I think seeing that I had put a bungy down on the counter. I just wanted out by then so we left without me buying anything. My little incident caused Duncan and others some amusement for the afternoon, well probably longer than that. I’m going to avoid the music BBQ as they are already thinking up appropriate songs:- The Great Escape, Freedom, Help. Feel free to add more to the list.
Not the right type of Lock In
Wish it had been a book shop though not a China shop. By China shop what I mean is there are numerous shops in both Spain and we saw many of them in Portugal which are owned/run by Chinese families and have just about everything you need, a bit like Woolworths but without the pick ‘n’ mix. They sell :-pans, bungy, glasses, kettles, suitcases, haberdashery supplies, shopping trollies, stationery, bins, paint, brushes, makeup, kitchen roll, car bits, bike bits, light bulbs, washing up bowls, washing up liquid, velcro, wool, thread, plant pots, watering cans, shower curtains, mirrors, hooks, phone accessories, nails, hammers, the list goes on. Pretty much whatever you need, the first stop is the China shop. I went back this morning, making sure I went early on the assumption that if they had just opened then they were less likely to close. Turns out they are closing every day between 3-4pm. Still didn’t buy the bungy, buoght bin bags instead.
Hopefully I’ll get my mojo back soon enough.
