SEXY IDEA

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Sometimes there are places that simply don’t work for commercial activities, no matter what kind of shop you choose. This was the case of a shop at a bunch of meters from my mother’s house.

Since I can remember, in the spot there have been a dairy, a bar, a bakery, an ice cream parlour and a shop of fitness integrators. All of them closed after no more than a year. No exceptions.

Then, the smart idea came: a sexy shop. Not a conventional one – there’s still too much discretion and shame about sex around here – but an automatic distributor, where you just have to get in, insert your id card and choose your toy.

Maybe this activity will have success, who knows. Never underestimate the power of sex.

ORPHAN SNAKE IN WEST LONDON

Picture: Just chaos

A mysterious foreign man bought an anaconda snake in a local pet shop three months ago and never came back to collect it.

The meter-long yellow anaconda was bought in April for £250 in Aqua Rep the tropical pet shop in Harrow Road. According to the shop owner, the unknown man took it as a present for his wife and said he would come back to collect it as soon as possible – but the reptile is still in the shop.

“Usually we write down all the details of our customers, when they order this kinds of animals,” said Michelle, 23, shop assistant. “But he just came in one day and bought the first snake he saw in our expositors, so we don’t have a clue on how to contact him.”

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SUPERMARKET, AGAIN

How often do you go shopping with a short list and end up buying a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with what you really need?

Picture: Anthony Albright

Passing in front of all that coloured-packaged food, I feel as if I really have to buy almost everything. Supermarkets seem to be made for people to get lost and waste a lot of precious time walking confusedly among the shelves.

One of the things that I’ve liked the most since I’d fled the nest is going to the shop. Finally I could decide what to eat and how to organize my meals – even if I couldn’t bother cooking for myself. Anyway.

Supermarkets have the power to fascinate customers with all those products, the plain voice of the speaker – always calling someone of the staff to the cashiers – the noise and the breeze coming from the big fridges, the sections of food, the buy-one-get-one-free offers…

Even if at first I didn’t mind spending half an hour in that attractive new place, now I feel I really have enough of it. And I’m not the only one, I guess.

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FROM THE ORGANIC FARM TO THE TOWN

The shop-restaurant from the outside

An enticing perfume welcomed us as we approached the tables outside Daylesford in Pimlico road: at first, it was hard to say if it was a shop, a grocery store, a bar or a restaurant.

We arrived very hungry on Saturday for a late lunch and were still confused by the large fridges and vegetables display racks in front of the main door, when we luckily found a place for two, sharing a big table with other people.

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THE MANAGER WITH A SAILOR HAT

Picture: MoneyBlogNewz

Hundreds of coloured balloons, cartoons decorations, extravagant make-up, odd sunglasses and fancy dresses are all around. Outside the shop, the panel says: “Party-Party”. Inside, a waitress wearing Irish-fairy-wings instructs me: “The manager is upstairs.”

In a tiny room surrounded by fulfilled shelves, a man with a white sailor-hat is sorting out some muffin tins. He smiles at me and said, “Just a minute, we’re very busy in these days,” and turns to give a woman an 18inch-serving dish for a birthday dessert.

Francois is a party-man from the North-east of France, who came to London for a two-weeks holiday in 1997, and never moved back.

He wants me to guess his age and his peppy face lights up as he confirms,         “I’ll be 30 in May.” He is planning a smashing night, I bet.

Manager of the “Party-Party” shop in Kilburn since 2007, Francois has been working for ten years in the other branch of Dorsten, before the promotion.

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