“Ah! Richard; haven’t seen you for a while. How are you?”

Always good to be greeted personally wherever you go, whether it’s in Gail’s where we buy our San Francisco Sourdough bread, by Dean who runs the ‘Fruit & Veg’ stall at the top of George Street, by Rahmi where I collect my paper-copy newspaper every morning (Note 1) or by those here in The Hope who, after two years, recognise me. It grounds me in my local community.

Josh is already organising my double espresso so I look around to see who’s here: I spot Sami & Lisa, both head down into their mobiles and Mo, sitting by herself. Libby is loading the dishwasher so I naturally ask if she has news of Susie. Apparently she’s working in the Queenstown ski chalet until the end of the month and then starts her way north; no news is good news, as they say!

I am surprised to see Sami so walk over. “I thought you two were going to Berlin? That’s what you said last time I saw you.”

Lisa rolls her eyes to heaven. “Well, yes, that was the plan and it was all booked with EasyJet (Note 2). Then 10 days before we were due to fly they cancelled our outbound flight with no alternative. Two days later they offered a flight to Milan, a three hour stopover, then a flight to Berlin. My knowledge of European geography said this was nonsense!”

“So did you get your money back?”

“We had booked through Opodo, an online travel agent. Eventually got all the money back on the hotel but still almost 20% short on the flight costs. They say that some charges are non-refundable, charges such as Online Baggage (£25), Priority Boarding (£18) and Online Seats (£47); ‘It’s in the Ts & Cs’”

“But these are for a flight which didn’t happen! They cancelled it!!”

Sami interrupted: “She’s like a dog with a bone! She won’t give up!” 

“So Berlin’s off the radar?”

“No we’ll try and go in early October but through Heathrow! Now what do you have in your cuttings/ideas file Richard?”

“You read my last PC about relationships ‘in real life’?

“Yes, really enjoyed that ……..”

“I sense I could write postcards about online grooming, online scamming, fantasy worlds and all sorts of things but in my notebook I have this scrap about The Post Office agreeing ‘to revisit scandal victims’ pay-outs’. Not sure what your position is, Sami, but for instance one sub-postmaster accused of stealing £17k was offered £10k!”

“Still in discussions ……!” His face said he was resigned to the way the Post Office is handling it! “Hey! We need to get going as Lisa has an appointment with the Commissioning Editor of The Argus (Note 3) in about 30 minutes, to see whether she can submit local stories here, just as she does up in Derbyshire. See you soon!” ….And with a nod to Josh, they head out the door.

I grab another coffee and go across to Mo. She motions me to sit while she finishes off a WhatsApp message to her mother. Putting her phone down, she asks:

“So Richard. How are we today?”

“Actually really good! Yesterday had a false tooth implanted in my jaw, the culmination of a five month’s process. Tooth out, mouth settles, implant team place the spike in, time for this to settle, time for the implant to be made, and then eventually screwed in place.”

“Let’s see?”

I open my mouth wide, not something I would normally do in a crowded café!

“Top right.” I mumble …..

“Wow! Have no idea which one is not real. Good job!”

“Well it should be! Almost had to take out a mortgage; as it was, it cost an arm and a leg! Changing the subject, did you see that interesting comparative table about the population density of some European countries? The Dutch government has fallen over the issue of the number of immigrants the country was accepting and the article had, inter alia, this little table, showing the number of people per square kilometre.”

“That’s fascinating. And we think we live in a crowded island, yet in the Netherlands they have twice the density!”

“I was reminded of another comparison, that between France and the US State of Colorado. France’s 550k sq kms is twice the size of the state but her population is 67 million (population density 121) and Colorado’s 6 million (population density 21). (Note 4)”  

Mo leans slightly towards me, as if our conversation should be more private!

“Look Richard I’ve been mulling over this as I really can’t make up my mind. You remember in March this year, in the German city of Hamburg, the news that “Seven people, including an unborn baby, have been killed in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness hall.” hit the headlines?”

“Yes! Go on”

“Whilst the actual event is tragic enough on its own, I was brought up short by the mathematics! Four men and two women, all German nationals, were killed; so that makes six. In the United Kingdom an unborn baby doesn’t become a separate person with legal rights until they are born and draws breath. Interestingly in the USA, ‘an unborn child is a person within the meaning of the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution.’, but American CBS News reported only six dead.”

“I see what you mean ……….

Richard 14^th July 2023 (Bastille Day)

Hove

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 My Times’ subscription covers both paper and digital and I find myself more often than not doing Killer Sudoku on my iPad.

Note 2 EasyJet flies from London Gatwick, some 35 minutes’ drive north of Hove. Other airlines that fly to Berlin such as Lufthansa or BA fly from Heathrow, a 2 hour drive.

Note 3 The Argus has been East and West Sussex’s local paper since 1880 and is based in Brighton & Hove.

Note 4 I used to use another comparison I’d heard; that the US State of Montana and France are geographically the same size but Montana’s population is 1 million and France’s 67. Then I looked at the actually figures and Montana is 377k sq kms, so only 70% the size of France!