We were in Portobello Road,
experiencing the market without a million people.
The road is really pretty when it can be seen without the heaving crowds and stalls of hawkers.
After buying a couple of things we decided to stave off our hunger and have a cup of coffee in a coffee shop that spilled out onto the pavement.
Definitely not Starbucks but it will do!
While hubs was powdering his nose, or whatever polite thing it is men do when they go to the loo, I continued to sit and watch the people wandering down the road, they were all foreign, European foreign, not an American in earshot! Behind me I heard someone asking politely,
“Would you like to buy me a cup of tea?” I pricked up my ears at the English but imagined it to be someone in a group of passing strollers.
I heard the same question again and then a slim man came into my view and looked me in the eye and said,
“Excuse me, would you like to buy me cup of tea?”
“Yes,” I said, “I’ll buy you a cup of tea,” and I went to get up.
“Well,” he said, “would you give me the money for a water?”
I was on my feet now,
“I won’t give you any money but I’ll buy you a cup of tea if that’s what you want?”
His eyes darted to the fridge packed with cold, bottled drinks.
“An orange juice, would you buy me an orange juice, or a …”
I slipped into Mum mode,
“Go and choose what you want,” I indicated the display of drinks with a nod of my head, “and I’ll buy it for you.”
I made my way to the counter.
He chose a coke and I told the barista that I was buying it, and then the beggar left with his drink.
“That was very kind of you,” said the young man behind the counter when I paid him £1.50 for the drink.
Hadn’t I been waiting for this opportunity for a while now?
He asked me so politely I could hardly resist; he had struck my Mum chord with his carefully chosen words.
I told hubs the story when he returned with a well buffed nose, and he said,
“Did you buy him a drink?”
“Of course!” I said.
Hubs always finds someone to help when he is out and about; this morning it was my turn.
Thank you Lord for presenting me with a baby step I could manage!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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