my brolly.

I schlepped across town in torrential rains yesterday in an attempt to determine what my 07-08 year could look like in Aberdeen.

An equation of the day would look something like this: (15 minute walk downtown + 25 minute bus ride + 5 minutes across a pool of a parking lot) x 2 + 7 minute wait for the bus + 10 minute detour to get groceries = 4 layers of clothing soaked through / 0 definitive answers to the question of my future.

The undisputed, but undesired, star of the day was the Aberdeen weather which escorted its audience from sunglasses to wellies in under an hour. It totally upstaged my umbrella—which performed pathetically.

Disappointing, since miles have been covered and whole afternoons spent on the hunt for a good “brolly” to accommodate a student/writer budget (forget £12 at John Lewis or £8 at Accessorize). Finally the Cancer Research shop procured a brand-new wooden handled, classic black number for the bargain price of £2.50 and I was triumphant… until yesterday.

When called upon to duty it was virtually AWOL—broken in three spots and flipped inside-out four times before I even made it downtown. I was envying a lady on the street with a much fancier-looking brolly, regretting that I hadn’t just shelled out $25 for a good one, and at that moment hers pulled the same inside out stunt and I heard her cursing it (“Schewpid piece of…”) and I felt smug once again.

In fact, the day wasn’t a total bust—en route home I stopped at one of Aberdeen’s 500 charity shops to shake off a layer of water and I found two essential components to add to my library: Charlie and Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, illustrated by Quentin Blake, both for the low, low price of 49p.