Wednesday 16 September 2009
One of these major supermarket chains was responsible for me acquiring a new acquaintance yesterday.A. Tesco
B. Sainsbury's
C. Asda
D. Netto
....well, I said major, so it's not Netto.
After spending the last weekend eating nothing but carcass and cardboard at Bestival, my body was literally screaming out for fresh fruit, backflipping for water and groaning for greens. A trip to Asda was on the cards. My housemate had informed me of its presence on my first day in Manchester, and so my Father and I made a trip. Since then, I have been a slave to the wonder of internet shopping. On this occasion, I couldn't wait the two working days and so went for the hands on experience. Turning right out of my flats, I set my Blackberry to try and find the place, after ten minutes ending up on Stretford Bridge. For those in Portsmouth, this is like wanting to go to Commercial Road from Elm Grove and ending up on Albert Road. For the Londoners, think Waterloo to Brixton and ending up in Covent Garden. Just does not make ANY sense. Realising my errors, I asked the next person who walked past: "Excuse me, do you know where Asda is?". The guy turned to me and said in an American accent " Man, you're nowhere near, like nowhere, you gotta go all the way THAT way, up that road, woah... um, lemme just see..."
He tried to explain landmarks to me, and I had to explain to him that I had no clue. He said my best bet was to walk back up to Oxford Road. He was going in that direction (apparently) so would take me. He turned out to be a half-American, half-German law and psycology student at Manchester Uni. We walked to the bus stop where he told me which bus to get on. He lived in Didsbury, and so needed to get on the same bus. After busting me for a while for having a Blackberry and an iPod, we debated Mac vs PC for a bit, then he told me about all the nice parks in Manchester. and all the rough parts. It was coming up to where I had to get off to find this ever elusive Asda... he tried to direct me just beforehand but I just was not getting it... so he said "hey, I've actually got nothing to do for a while and I have a friend down this road, i'll walk with you". So we talked about his German hometown for a bit: Heidleburg (I had heard that it is a pretty nice place from someone I used to walk with), and I talked about Southsea (he had been, he said it was small but beautiful, which pretty much sums it up). And other things, and different stuff. He said that he thought I was seventeen when I had asked him for help, which made me feel uneasy. He was 26, and was just starting mental illnesses in his syllabus, which is my forte (I got a first in Neuroscience). We finally made it to Asda, where I thanked him so much for his help, and on request gave him my email address to add me on Facebook. It turns out that he is actually nice, normal and friendly. I had just met the nicest stranger in the world, and apparently he shares the sentiment.
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