I wish I would...

Today I have mostly been selling greetings cards in the market. Indoors. It's one of my self-employed 'jobs' : as I enjoy meeting people, it works well for me. This card is called Waterside Alphabet, and is by artist Val Goldfinch. My website is www.helenascards.co.uk

As a man was passing by my stall today and nodded at me, I asked if he was interested in a Mother's day card. His reply was heartfelt: " I wish I would..."

When I came home, I had some cake I'd bought at the market, and sat down for an e-chat with my brother Ruaraidh, who was killing time by visiting a shopping mall somewhere in or near Chicago, before catching a plane home to Holland. I'd asked him to source me a jigsaw puzzle if he could, but he sent me photos of Jimmy Choos instead. Obviously he wasn't in the Granny mall.

He had not heard about the suspected Russian nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, UK. I thought the story had been making world headlines, and justifiably so. In 1993, I spent a summer in Salisbury. It didn't seem the sort of place where a John Le Carre-type of plot would be enacted. The cold war was not long over, for one thing.

Now I must return to the jigsaw website I discovered while chatting to my brother. Friday night: rock and roll! I have the whole weekend free. This is luxury.