Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
2 x toothbrushes
1 x toothpaste
Towel
Soap
Plasters for our blisters
It seemed like a fairly modest selection of provisions. Acquiring such supplies in a busy
seaside town was going to prove difficult, so we decided to ask at different shops for each
item.
First up was Boots, the
'popular high street chemist'
. We spoke to the manager - a
young, pretty, smiley lady, which is always a bonus. She seemed mildly amused when we
told her what we were up to and explained why we were dressed so ridiculously. We asked
first of all for a couple of their cheapest toothbrushes, and without hesitation she walked
off and returned with a pack of Boots value toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste.
'Iassume you'llneedthistoothpaste, too.Anythingelse?' sheasked.Wewereshocked.
We had expected a cold response from the recognised high street chains. We imagined that
a strict policy structure would be in place that would prevent people like us walking in off
the street and getting things for free.
'That's brilliant. Thanks,' I said. 'Could you spare a small packet of plasters?'
'Sure,' she said and asked one of the other members of staff to pass her a packet of
plasters from behind the counter. She probably would have given us everything on our list,
but we decided to leave it at that and try elsewhere for the rest of our things.
There was another local chemist just up the road and we went in and asked for some
soap. The man behind the counter disappeared down into the basement and emerged a few
moments later holding a bottle of rather expensive looking shower gel, two gigantic beach
towels and two t-shirts.
'Here you go, lads,' he said. 'Do you have towels already? If not then I'm sure these
will be useful.'
'We don't have towels, but they were on our list. Thank you so much,' said Ben, open-
mouthed. I mean open-mouthed as in 'surprised'. He obviously talks with his mouth open.
If he had been a ventriloquist I would have mentioned that earlier.
'You're welcome. We get them free from companies when they're trying to promote a
new product. You can have the t-shirts, too.' The t-shirts were huge white ones with a sun
cream logo on the front and the words 'Surf's up' on the back. We had only been on the
road for a day and a half, but the sight of a clean white t-shirt that didn't have any traces of
mould was unbelievably appealing.
We decided to go and have a swim in the sea, give ourselves a bit of a wash and then
changeintoour'Sundaybest'.ItwasSundayafterall,anditwasonlyrightthatwedressed
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