i really enjoy

I really enjoy moving just a tiny bit out of my comfort zone.

Today I decided to get my hair cut, rather than trim it myself as I usually do. This becomes an adventure for me! I occasionally go to a hairdresser in the town below, where you don't make an appointment. This morning I peeked in and there were only two customers ahead of me.

I made my greetings then took a seat. The conversation was a little too fast for me, and some of it in dialect, so I gave up my "listening exercise" for the day and picked up a magazine.

Here age is no secret; complete strangers will ask you how old you are. This magazine, full of filmstars and gorgeous bodies and more cleavage than any man could possibly want at the table, had three articles about television stars.... in their 60s! This was one magazine that left me feeling good, rather than depressed about the youth and sex culture the world encourages. Not only were these women clearly loving their lives, but they had wrinkles! Long live interesting faces!

Soon it was my turn. After I had taken my seat at the wash basin the hairdresser looked at her watch. Sorry, she just had to pop out to get bread, today is Thursday and everything shuts for the afternoon. Did any of us want her to get them bread too? Off she scuttled, leaving us in the salon, one under the drier, me at the washbasin, and another waiting for her colour treatment. She left the till open, there was no attempt to close anything, treating us equally as good friends.

Soon she was back to wash my hair. We managed much more conversation than last time, and she commented that my Italian was improving. Whew! I still can't pronounce "parrucchiere" (hair dresser) but I can at least have my capelli trimmed the way I want them. The cut was every bit as good as my last (London) haircut. The treatment perhaps a little less smooth, fewer niceties, but the price difference - incredible! You can't beat "going local"!

And, as always, after a good haircut I feel ten years younger... we just wont look TOO closely in the mirror! Vanity, all is vanity!