I woke up this morning with a mild headache and a stuffy nose. I guess that the cold is progressing along nicely. Kuniko had to go in to work, so I got up and took a shower, and then wandered over to Saty for some shopping. It was a little unnerving walking through the shopping center with most of the stores still closed. It felt like an abandoned building.
On my way back I bumped into all three of the owners of the three stores on the first story of my building. There is an interesting contrast between the three.
The first store is the bakery. When we first moved in to this place, we parked our car temporarily in one of the bakery spots while we unloaded. The owner of the bakery wrote a note and stuck it to our windshield saying “move your car!” We went in that day and apologized and bought some cakes, but ever since then he’s been really grouchy. He never smiles – even when I see him from a distance working in there he looks miserable. Just not a happy guy. So, we don’t buy cakes there – we just go somewhere else. I’d like to buy stuff there – it’s close and convenient.
The next store is the florist, and this guy knows customer service. He always greets us with a smile, throws in a few free flowers, and chats and enjoys our shopping visits. It’s a pleasure to shop there and I’ve never bought flowers anywhere else since we’ve moved in.
The last store is a hair salon – it’s like a Los Angeles-themed place. There’s hip-hop music playing, lots of American stuff all over as decorations. The owner (I think) is a young guy and his wife/girlfriend. I see them around town sometimes, and they always stare at me but never really say anything. I’d like to chat with them, but I don’t really need hair salon services so there isn’t really much opportunity.
Not much going on, so I’m going to take it easy today and just rest up and get healthy for next week.
