And then, when I arrived at the market, half the stalls had been put off by the weather. The fish man and the veg man were there but that was about all. The stall that sells biscuits, cheese, muesli - one of my main reasons for going was their muesli with hazelnuts, probably the best in the land - was taking the day off and everyone else seemed to have followed suit. So it goes!
I can't say the weather improved greatly after that. I had to go and collect our small grandson from school later. Fortunately the weather stayed reasonably fine for the walk up and down the hill between the school and the railway station. The small boy was on good form, amazingly chatty despite frozen feet (why do small boys always get their feet wet?) and earned his traditional dandelion and burdock drink and packet of crisps at the station buffet.
On the bus to the railway station to collect the boy, I once again had an odd travelling companion. My bus does a round-the-houses run between Oldham and Ashton, weaving its way in and out of various villages and housing estates. It comes into our village, round the council estate at the top of the village and back out of the village to continue its route. Instead of standing in the cold waiting for the bus to return from its run around the village I caught it at the entry point.
As I sat down, a voice from behind me asked, "Does this bus go to Dobcross?" So I explained that it didn't actually go into Dobcross village, that we were about to go through Delph and out again towards Uppermill and beyond. I then had to explain more or less the bus route to Ashton from Delph: Uppermill, Greenfield, Mossley, Ashston. All was quiet for a minute or two. Then as we left Delph behind, the voice resumed: " So now we are going to Delph?" I replied that we had already been through Delph and were on our way to Uppermill. "So, where is Dobcross then?" At that moment we went past the road that leads uphill to Dobcross village. I pointed it out. "Does the bus not go up there?" I refrained from making sarcastic replies about that obviously being the case and just said that you would need to walk. We had a little discussion about how long it would take, the difficulty some people would have, the steepness of the hill and so on.
And so the conversation, halting and odd, going quiet and then resuming, went on. At each turn she wanted to know where we were, where would the bus go next, what was the name of the school we went past, who did the football field belong to, where was I going, and so on and so on. Having discovered that I was going to the small Tesco in Greenfield before catching the train, she engaged me in a discussion about the merits of that Tesco as opposed to the big one on the way into Oldham and why it was less convenient for me to go there en route to catch the train to Stalybridge. It was exhausting!
Just before I got off the bus I asked where she was going. Ashton. Did she live in Ashton? No, Middleton. She was just out for a bus ride, hence all the questions about the places we passed through. Although she looked about thirty, her mind was like that of a young child, with that same odd logic about things. Perhaps everyone else on the bus had ignored her. Was I the first person to answer her questions? Why do I attract these odd conversationalists? And, given my earlier comments about the price of bus fares, how was she affording to go on this excursion? I can only imagine she had some kind of disabled person's bus pass. She seems to be making good use of it!
Out in the wider world, Lots of bigwigs have gone to Saudi Arabia to pay homage to the new king. Apparently Michelle Obama is refusing to wear a headscarf to cover her hair. Her principles may not stretch as far as refusing to go to the country but she is refusing to conform now she is there. Well, that should stir things up a little! Mind you, reports in the news today are trying to play all this down, assuring us that Michelle Obama is simply following USA protocol. Laura Bush, Hilary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice all set went scarfless. And nobody made Angela Merkel wear a headscarf. OK? Fuss over?
Today the snow is back. We don't seem to have too much but then, I am only looking at from inside my house since I am not obliged to go anywhere. Our daughter's school, in a higher spot of the region, has closed for the day as has our middle granddaughter's, so they are all home for the day. More is promised. Good job I laid in supplies yesterday!
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