Lots to chat about

How did I become this person who can have long conversations with anyone?
I used to be a shy little thing!

Last week, it took me an hour to get from the launderette to home (a five minute walk), and I spent most of my time in the launderette talking, as well.
One of the ladies from Stitch and Bitch came in at about the same time as me. Her house is being renovated, so she's using the launderette while the work is being done. She told me that she'd got so annoyed about the state of the launderette, with machines often breaking down and so on, that she'd got in touch with the owner and demanded a meeting with him.
"Do you know, he wasn't a bit like I imagined - utterly charming, and not defensive at all," she said. "He told me he'd had trouble getting hold of his mother's money, but when he did he had plans to do up the launderette."
(His mother used to own the launderette, and died a little while ago.)
(And call me cynical, but pushing a broom round the floor occasionally would be a step in the right direction).

Then I caught up with the news from Brecon Job Centre, from a chap I met when I was on one of the courses they send the long-term unemployed on. People on these courses tended to polarise into two groups - the youngsters with no skills who didn't really want a job, and the highly intelligent, over-qualified people for whom there were no local jobs available (which makes me sound rather snobbish, since I'm obviously not one of the kids with no skills - but my main point is that this chap certainly isn't). Anyway, he told me that one of the trainers on the course, who had been applying for more jobs than the unemployed people on the courses, had finally escaped, and was now much happier in a new job - and that the Job Centre itself was expecting cuts in staff.
He also told me about an A4e success story. When I was there, a lad with a criminal record was sent on the course from the Job Centre - despite the protests of the trainer, as the course was not set up for people like him. However, he was sent, and he was found a job placement - and he is now thriving. His new employers were impressed enough with him to take him on full-time, and are now talking about sending him to college on day release.

Later, on the way home, I met two ladies who I'd seen in the shop the night before. They stopped to make a fuss of Islay, and things went on from there, the conversation taking in Brother Cadfael books and Shrewsbury and all manner of other topics. They liked the idea of setting up a specialist science bookshop - one of the ladies was a mathemetician - but not with any very serious intent.
At one point, I asked them where they were staying. "The Bridge," they said, "and - this is not a criticism - but you do become surrogate grandmother to the children there, and when you come down in the morning, you're likely to find toys left on the stairs. It's like staying with a family more than a B&B."