Going shopping on a Saturday in the town where you went to school as a kid is horrible. I recognized, and promptly dodged, a handful old teachers and classmates, looking to avoid the obligatory small talk and follow-ups. Some are akin to me, you can see the brief panic in their eyes as the recognition hits, and then the tension flies when they realize you don’t fancy playing the social game either. That I don’t mind, that moment of connection has given me more than most social encounters of this kind ever has.

I’m not much for people, which isn’t exactly true. I am. People are interesting, they make up most of my stories. I’m just not a fan of forced social encounters, they lack substance and talking for the sake of talking isn’t something I enhjoy. So I avoid these encounters as much as possible, by not going shopping on a Saturday. But hey, I was out of whisky, so what’re you going to do?