Sushi for lunch

Really nice day today.  I went shopping with my girlfriend in preparation for her trip away.  We went to a local shopping mall and it was like Sex and the City meets the Golden Girls.  We sure hit the stores with a fervour I haven't seen in either of us in a long time.  Fun!

We went with a fairly long list of things to buy and we were completely successful - new trousers, shoes, pants, tops, and food for dinner.  The gods of shopping would have been proud of us today.  We moved effortlessly from store to store with bags in hand and credit cards waving.

Whilst in one of the stores I had to run interference while my friend tried on three different pairs of trousers in between racks of clothing right on the shop floor - too much trouble to queue up for the changing room.  I was slightly surprised to see this proper, older woman stripping off her trousers in the middle of this shop without a moments concern.  If anyone commented we decided the only answer would be 'no speaka de english'.

Lunch was a lovely treat of sushi sitting at the counter and watching plates of yummy stuff go by.  Everytime I eat sushi I look aroung the restasurants and see loads of tiny little kids.  I enjoy seeing these teenies tuck into sushi and sashimi.  I don't think I had even heard of sushi till I was in my tthirties and then it was only in super-expensive Japanese restaurants. In those early sushi days I always felt uncomfortable with the food and the surroundings so it's really nice to see all these little kids having such unadulterated fun with their food.

While we sat there we noticed a group of young (12 years old) kids enjoying themsleves with bowls of miso soup and sushi.  They started to talk to us and informed us of the free refills of miso soup - they were on their fourth bowls (to the consternation of the wwaitress). Two of the boys told us all about themselves, they had just finished summer camp and this was their first 'good' meal, they belonged to a United synagogue nearby and were studying for their upcoming bar mitzvahs, they were in the mall to buy shoes, etc.  It was quite a sweet and entertaining conversation and for us two old 'cougars' it was a real uplift to have been chatted up by 12 year olds!  We knew we still had what it takes, even if it was bit rusty!

Conversations with strangers sprung up all over the place.  I advised a Greek woman to eat cherries for her gout and another Portuguese woman steered my friend towards the trousers she eventually bought.  We engaged with people all day and had a blast.

Sometimes all it takes for the spirits to be lifted is a successful shopping expedition in the company of a good friend.