TIME AND CHANGE

I’ve decided to change my life but not sure for what so while I think about it I’m going to start living a bit more local. That means shopping for as much as I can on and around Stokes Croft meaning I’ll avoid Broadmead unless absolutely necessary.
Like this evening: I went to the newsagent at the end of Jamaica Street, which has become the first place I go.
‘You got any coffee?’ i said to the man who now greets me as a regular customer.
He turned round looked behind him, ‘Real coffee?’ I said.
‘No. We did have but we sold out.’
I left there with an Evening Post for jobs, only four thirty, and a pack of digestives. Then to the off license next to Mackies, you know the one, open all hours, bought pitta and coffee.
Next Mr. Tomato the veg shop where one borderline avocado was seventy-nine and the overripe one half price.
‘You use the internet?’ said the man serving.
‘At home,’ I said.
‘Look,’ he said, turning the nearest screen on the counter toward me. ‘This is downstairs.’
I could see four or five computers on tables against the far wall, one person sat in front of one of them.
‘You serve coffee?’
‘I put a few up here,’ he said, pointing at the back of the shop, ‘and have a coffee machine there,’ at the end of the veg display.
‘Real coffee?
‘Yes.’
‘I’d use the internet here if there was real coffee,’ I said.
‘Yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then this is for you,’ he said and he gave me a flyer. ‘The first half hour is free.’
Ashley News had nothing I wanted today so I went on to the Star where I waited ten minutes while the receipt reel was changed.
‘Sorry about that,’ he said when he gave me my change. ‘About the wait.’
‘Okay,’ I said and meant every word.