Well, I just got to the bookshop with my snacks and coffee ready for another day at the coalface bookshelves… switched on all the lights, set the till up and then looked down at the diary…
And then I checked the sign on the door…
So if you’re wondering how close we are as family, Business Mum and I… she obviously sent me the telepathic message that we are closed today but I was too busy watching Game of Thrones (old to you but new to me!) and I missed it. Of course, these opening hours are listed on our Facebook page but when was the last time I looked at Facebook? 2017?
As I’m dithering by the front door a little boy from my daughter’s class comes running down the road “Of course they’re open!” he shouts back to his Dad. Actually, I say, we aren’t meant to be, but I’m here, so we can be. Anyway, he knows what he’s come for and he’s paying cash. So I guess I’m open for now…
Listening to Cowboy Carter drinking my coffee and thinking about not telling my husband that I could have just come back home straight away. There’s washing to be done at home, and a child who needs snacks every half an hour, maybe I’ll just close the shop but stay here anyway, sit in the armchair, read in peace?
We have another customer! But they’re spending a shop gift voucher, so no actual money in the till. BUT THEN the parent asks me what I’ve read recently so I swoon over David Nicholls again and she pre-orders two copies and pays for them. This is as much as I might take for the rest of day, should I quit while I’m ahead?
[same transaction]
Me: Do you need a bag?
Customer: No thanks, I can hold them.
Son of customer: My mum’s got REALLY BIG hands.
Can’t believe I redeemed my free coffee on my loyalty card on a day I’m not even meant to be here. I cannot go home, where the coffee is free, until this free, but more valuable, coffee is done.
No reply from my text to BM: Am I not meant to be here?
Even though I also added I’m here a minute later for clarification.
A little girl comes to swap her world book day voucher (another zero transaction) and her adult says “We didn’t expect you to be open” and so you know how the rest of this newsletter will pan out…
We don’t need to go in that bookshop because we’ve already bought books.
Devastating reply from BM just says ‘Closed.’
Coffee finished, no one has been in in over an hour so I’m closing early to go and have lunch with my family. I’ll make a Good Friday of it yet! Sorry this has been a short Receipt this week but really there shouldn’t have been one at all, and I was just saying last week that I haven’t taken a break from this weekly format since it started. Consider the lilies this my break and I shall resurrect the Receipts next week to its usual glory/misery, Amen. Happy Easter/Long bank holiday weekend friends!
If you’d to support my bookshop you can buy your books through this link and if you’d like to buy me an Easter Egg, upgrade the subscription to this newsletter because that is eggsactly what I’ll spend the money on.
Happy Easter! I’ve no idea how I happened upon your Substack (I only follow 3 other people), and I don’t even live in the UK, but I love books (although we have very different tastes!), so I enjoy hearing about your bookstore days and book recommendations. Owning a bookstore would be a dream come true for me…and sadly, I live in a country where brick & mortar bookshops have sadly gone the way of the dodo.
I love it! I’m working today, but in a very lackadaisical way… I read my work book in the garden, put some laundry on the line, etc.