Our antique door locks have been giving us some grief so we got the locksmith round to give us some advice.
He’s very experienced, and loved our vintage locks. All the young people (and Simon) these days want sophisticated new technology so they can use their smart phones to open their doors, but this man told us that the old technology was by far the best. Apparently modern banks and spy agencies are all happy to have swipe card entry to their buildings during the day, but there’s nothing that can beat an old fashioned key and lock for security out of hours. This pleased me very much.
We met up with him on site last week, and today he came round to do the work. When he arrived I’d just got out of the shower. I was dressed but still had a towel around my head, which I took off when I went out to his van to sort out payment. He was quite taken aback by this behaviour: “What would your mother say if she saw you outside with wet hair!”
I was dumbstruck. OK, this chap was older than me, but let me put it this way – I’m not going to see thirty again, so the idea that my mother may have some influence over my behaviour seems rather a bizarre concept. Also, knowing my mum – RIP – if she appeared today, I don’t think anything to do with my hair would even be in the top three subjects of what she’d want to talk about. I’m not sure what the threat is exactly that I’m supposed to face by being outside with wet hair, anyway. Is it that it’s going to dry out looking funny? Will it upset the neighbours by lowering the tone? Or is it going to make me sick – I’m guessing the germ hypothesis may have passed our man by. Whatever it is, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, thanks all the same (great job with the locks, though).
