Disappointing or not - Day 395
An average day, no travelling, just normal stuff like Parkrun and having my hair done - was it disappointing or not?
Our 5th Parkrun in the morning was at Green Point near the Cricket Club, so a 15 minute walk away. Wow, this was a big one with 870 parkrunners. The track was flat, lots of concrete to run on, and hot. Funny, I didn’t think I’d done that well, I missed Keith, my pacemaker from last week; however I am certainly not disappointed. I beat my fastest time by 10 seconds. Phew, glad I made that sprint at the end…ok…jog! Tim’s time was just 13 seconds slower than last week. He reckons that if there weren’t so many people, he would have been quicker.
On our way back we stopped to chat with a homeless guy called Chris. We often see him sitting at the bottom of our road. He moved to Cape Town for a job and a few months later was laid off as the company was losing money. He openly admitted that he had no contingency, so became homeless. I could sense his disappointment, he wasn’t blaming anyone but himself and is now getting very depressed. It is so sad that more and more people are becoming homeless, both here and in the UK. We are both so impressed with people like our friend Steve Hedley who do so much for people who have found themselves on hard times, whatever the reason. We will see how we can support Chris for the rest of our time here.
In the afternoon, I spent most of the time sitting in a chair while Tim was mooching around shops, stopping off for lunch, for a drink, reading and waiting patiently for me for 3.5 hours. I was having my hair done. A very experienced and professional lady called Cindy was my hairdresser, and she also trains other hairdressers in colouring hair. I think my expectations were raised too much. Oh dear, only one way to go.
I wanted to keep my grey roots, to reduce maintenance, and have something groovy, perhaps some striking purple running through the hair. We looked at photos, and I pointed out the ones that I liked. I made it very clear that I did not do subtle. Oh dear, perhaps Cindy didn’t hear the word “not” and perhaps groovy means something different here in South Africa.
So, the result….nice haircut, hair condition is much improved, and a very subtle lilac is running through a kind of brown colour. Where are my grey roots? I was disappointed; I didn’t get what I asked for, it was not cheap and I then just said thank you, paid and left. I had a niggly sense of berating myself for being weak and not complaining, and for even being bothered. The dichotomy of it all. It's all just superficial. I could have used that money to help Chris, the homeless guy. However, Tim really likes it. I recognise that Cindy worked hard, and hey, it’s only hair. It too shall pass….it too shall grow. Hey ho.
