Personal Space Invaders

I must look eminently approachable. It's the only explanation I can think of for some of the events of the last couple of days.

First of all, the bus to Covent Garden over lunch break yesterday. Not only was there little old lady in the funny hat running her fingers over the embroidery on the satin panel on my skirt (and, consequently, over my knee as well), there was the little old lady with the big glasses who patted my hand as a thanks-and-fare-thee-well when I gave her directions to Holborn station. I don't know if it was different in their day or if it's just me, but ... strangers with the touching ... no, no, no. It's hard enough to keep a bubble of personal space intact in this city without random old ladies doing the laying on of hands routine. I think I handled it well ... at any rate, I wasn't rude. I probably would have been, though, if the people doing the touching had been male and / or under seventy.

This morning, however, was a whole different matter. Nobody actually presumed to touch me in any way, but ... well, look, do you ask random people in fast-food restaurants for medical advice?

To explain: I'm going off to Neal's Yard over lunch so I can spend obscene amounts of money on herbs and suchlike as weapons in my ongoing war with migraine, digestive upsets, insomnia and all the other health problems that proliferate at Sourcebook Central 2.0. Unlike yesterday, I came prepared, and spent the commute alternating between Mastering Herbalism: a Practical Guide and the Neal's Yard catalogue, so I know what I need to get and what I can expect to be spending. Over the bus and Tube journeys, this was fine, but I was dreadfully hungry when I got out of the Tube station and didn't have time for my usual faff-fest at the Sainsburys Local down the road, so I figured to pick up something at the local McGreaseball (hash browns are at least edible; there's not much you can do to fuck up frozen hashed potato patties). In the queue, there was a man waiting for his breakfast sandwich to be prepared and when I got up to the front, he asked (in a broad Glasgow accent) if I wanted to trade a fiver for his five pound coins. As I know many people who don't like carting around shrapnel, I said fine and made the swap. This is all fine and normal, and something about which you can approach a stranger in a fast-food restaurant. This is fine.

As the counter lady is bagging my hash browns, however, Mr Glasgow notices my book. He then proceeds to tell me that he's about to have a thyroid operation and asked what sorts of things he could do herbally to help, with particular emphasis on dealing with the incision (antiseptic and scar minimisation, I can only assume).

...Muh? I'm in a fast-food restaurant, where it is safe to assume that I want to be gone in the minimum amount of time possible. I happen to be carrying around a book on herbalism, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm any good at it. In short, I am not about to pull a herbal remedy out of my arse on no information, or stand around talking symptoms and browsing through my book, when I need to get to the job that pays me. I basically told him to go to Neal's Yard or somewhere similar and ask them for advice. Then I scrammed with all due alacrity.

I must give off vibes.

Two more things:

1) No Fading Suns yesterday. Horrible moods. Horrible.

2) "Kittens...too cute...strength...failing....KAHN!!!!!!!"

If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?

My work e-mail is wonked. My work e-mail has been wonked all day. It keeps throwing up error messages for no. Damn. Reason. Rrrrrrrrgh.

Not that lunch break was much better, mind you. Running around Covent Garden during lunch is not exactly advisable. Never mind the charity muggers and the Big Issue salespeople shouting in your ear (literally); my main problem is with the bloody tourists. I don't mind tourists as a general rule, but, as I think I've said before, I hate the fact that they seem to think that the fact that they're on vacation absolves them of anything remotely resembling common courtesy. They amble along at a snail's pace, taking up the entire pavement, utterly oblivious to the fact that there are people who have jobs to get to or a lunch break frittering away to nothing with each passing moment walking right behind them, desperately wishing they could speed up and / or get past you. Or worse, they stand slap bang in the middle of the pavement and unfold a huge map, then stand there and gawk at the street signs and then peer myopically at their maps again. Lather, rinse, repeat for about ten minutes. leopard_lady calls them "meanderthals". I call them an obnoxious pain in the arse. Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-toe...

On the other hand, I did get to Neal's Yard in the end. I felt sorry for the lady who was getting me the herbs; there were about a dozen herbs on my list and it took ages to get it all weighed out. She was very nice, though, and took pains to make me feel like I wasn't imposing or anything. I think I will probably become a fairly regular customer over there, given the good service, the good selection and the relative convenience. I mean, okay, I had to chase down a bus to get back to work even remotely on time this afternoon, but that's only because of a side trip I had to make to the bank. Without that, I'd have been fine for time. Getting to Watkins from work on time might be pushing it a bit (though not if I take the Tube, possibly), but Neal's Yard is doable.

The focus of today's shopping excursion was threefold -- remedies for insomnia, headaches and digestive upsets. Therefore, mostly teas and infusions for internal use. I also picked up a couple of mixing bottles and a bottle of base bath and shower gel, which can also be used as a bath foam. Next time I go (probably within the next couple of days), I will pick up some of the other bases they had on offer (shampoo, conditioner, lotion, ointment) and a few more mixing bottles and do some work on home cosmetics. I'll probably pick up some herbs for rheumatism and muscle spasms as well -- start work on salves and poultices -- but I want to do some further reading on that. Mastering Herbalism is all very well, but it's not as comprehensive on remedies as I'd like. I'm thinking I should pick up Culpeper's Complete Herbal and / or The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy. Foyles and Blackwell's should still be open by the time I get out of work. The question is, can I really be bothered to go all the way out there, given that there is now moderate neck and back pain?

Time will tell.