Oooooh! The market!!!

Friday morning and Tommy was with his Mum at the hospital so.... Terry took me shopping! He
had been up early to take Janet to the airport for her girls weekend away. He cooked me lovely scrambled eggs then we set out. We were keenly waiting at the bus stop by 8 o'clock... the early bird gets the worm and all...

We could smell the markets well before we entered them. The fish stalls were right next to the main entrance so we got a good whiff. Interesting to see the different varieties of seafood. Some I recognise like gurnard but then there were the massive crabs and prehistoric looking ling.




There were loads of food stalls... veges, bread, cakes, lollies, cheese, tea, olives, butchers, deli.... amazing! We got to sample lots of goodies, if we go again I'll skip breakfast and fill up there... yum yum!

There were also stalls with 2nd hand stuff, books, clothes, jewellery, craft, t-shirts... loads of stuff... I wasn't really there to buy but I did find a couple of brooches I had to have... as mementoes of the trip of course!

I tried to keep my mouth shut and blend in so I could immerse myself in the atmosphere and the accents. The singsong banter, arguments and bargaining all really interesting to listen to.

One thing that strikes me is how personable people are. We grabbed a coffee and sat ourselves down next to a chap - Mervyn - who.... somehow??... got onto the subject of the state of the health system. It would seem that many of the problems we have at home are not isolated. Mervyn however had a far more interesting account having worked as a porter. I'll not go into it here, but he had me shedding more than a couple of tears.... laughing my head off that is. Suffice to say his tale involved a "short wee man rapidly approaching 6 foot", a peculiar buzzing sound and a set of forceps! Oh Lordy!!