There’s a woman in Farnham who spends an inordinate amount of time in the toilet at Starbucks. This morning, she was in the little room for half an hour. Sue, Sophie and I were wondering what she did in there. She doesn’t leave a mess or anything like that. The toilet looks the same as it did when she went in. It’s certainly intriguing.
When not in the toilet at Starbucks, she walks around town, carrying bags of stuff. She walks in a busy sort of way, as if she’s the White Rabbit, afraid of being late for the Queen of Hearts and her garden party. She also visits Waitrose where she talks, very loudly, to various members of staff.
I guess she’s one of the ‘Characters of Farnham’.
Another of these Characters was Kevin, the smelly, shouty, beardy man who I have written about before. He died at the beginning of the year, Sue told me. She then told me about all the other strange and generally smelly people who visit Starbucks. She made me very glad I don’t work in the service industry.
8 days to go
Characters aside, I took a wander around Farnham before heading home this morning and was amazed by the changes happening at the moment. When (if?) we ever come back, I don’t think we’ll recognise it.
For one thing there’s the Brightwell’s abomination which, no doubt, will be finished and become the new town centre, which will mean the rest of the town will have died. Which made me wonder how long the new tenants in the Lion and Lamb Yard will last. There are quite a few new eateries currently being fitted out which, while needed on the good days of summer, will be empty in winter.
In the meanwhilst, on West Street, the Farnham Herald offices have moved down to Union Street which will affect any passing traffic they attracted before. And I guess passing traffic across the road wasn’t good enough to keep the Hoxton Bakehouse, sourdough, coffee and buns shop in business.
And, of course, Bloom has closed as well as Blossom. In fact, I noticed that Jack and Alice which is now open where Blossom was, was doing a thriving breakfast trade. So, lots of changes.
Then, in Downing Street which I walked down in order to go to Robert Dyas (which hadn’t opened yet) I noticed a shop being fitted out with cooler units. It looked like it was either going to be some sort of deli or, could it be, a fishmonger. I’ll be quite annoyed if it turns out to be a fishmonger.
Change was not limited to the centre of town, though. We spent the day getting rid of heaps of stuff. We both donated things to charity as well as giving stuff away on Trash Nothing. While I’m also still using Freecycle, the Trash Nothing app makes things so easy and quick, it seems foolish not to use it. I get responses almost before I post new items.
Getting rid of books is a bit difficult but we’re being very brave and divesting ourselves of the weight of many volumes. Hopefully someone else will enjoy them as much as we have.
