sometimes you have to blog…

you know, sometimes you just feel like you have to do something and right now I feel i need to write this story while its still fresh in my memory. Because it surely is one of the weirdest 1 hours in my life.

At 22.50 I have decided I feel like a beer. In the part of town I live now its possible – go to a few bars around the block or just go to a TESCO some 2 km away. So I decided to go for a walk and go to TESCO. I logically wanted to take some empty beer bottles so I dont have to pay for them again. Just to realize that the huge collection of empty bottles has disappeared – 1 month worth of 8 people drinking beer… So I assumed someone took them to the shop to collect the money, so I asked and was told they have been all thrown away! Where I asked – in front of the house, big blue bag full of bottles. So I decided to take a few with me… filled in my backpack with them… and decided… that I am gonna take them all! Walking 2 km (= 0.5 hr) with a backpack and a huge blue plastic bag in a hand was what I considered to be weird and worth calling it a strange day… Sweated I reached the TESCO – 56 bottles, thats 20 kg of glass… Of course I bought only new beer and chocolate for the money I got for the bottles…

So I started walking home, nearly midnight. And see an old lady pushing the TESCO cart on the other side of the street already some 5 min walk from the TESCO. The cart was sliding, jumping, going out of its way to make her stride slower and more tiring. So with the first bottle of beer open in my hand I have decided to cross the street and offer help. Thats when the stranger part of the evening started…

She said yes, visibly already tired. Realize, its midnight and an 80+ year old lady is pushing a TESCO cart on the street with her shopping in it… She agreed and while leaning on the handle of the cart together with me was pushing/pulling the cart. She didnt live that close, actually even a little further than me, had to ask me to slow down and take a rest a few times while going, told me about her son who “is coming late, so she didnt want to wait for him”, that she “was hungry at home because she all her food and thats why decided to go shopping”, that she is “very tired, because she hasnt been going this way out for a while”… Even in two it was not easy pushing the unstable cart on the stone paved side walks. And when we have been only behind the corner from the place she said she lived, she asked for a rest… And started to fade away… She was leaning on the cart handle, eyes closing, hands loosing grip, knees slightly bending. She said she is just very very tired, was yawning, looking like she will faint. I picked her up and sat her on the ground with beck to the wall. Only when I started to dial the ambulance did she wake up and shown some ability to get home. But her ability to walk was close to zero, just slowly moving feet, to tell the truth I was not sure if she is ok (if thats possible in this situation). So I had no other choice just to pick her up and like a baby bring her to her door, sit her down on the stairs, unlock the door, carry her to ther door and let her enter. She asked me to bring the cart in the flat – cause “last time someone stole it”, but the shit was damn heavy. So in a spark of genius I asked if I can take it to tesco on my own, right agead.

She agreed, let me take that stupid piece of metal away and invited me for coffee any time I feel like… I feel like going to check up on her these days and making sure that she is ok… Coming over repeatedly and making her shoping… She was so vulnerable, lost, repeating herself without noticing… If I hadnt brought her home she would just stay somewhere and fall asleep.

I drunk a bottle of beer, ate a big bar of chocolate and went to sleep thinking how weird this city can be.