on corner shops

I find the variety of produce sold in my local corner shop to be most perplexing. The place is run by turks, and there are the predictable Turkish items, chiefly excellent flat bread and Turkish cheese, both of which I adore. Alongside these items are various curry-related items, presumably catering to the large local Bengali population. Then there are the nasty bottles of non-refrigerated beer sold in bulk, lest we forget that this is still England. And finally, the there are strange bottles of pickled cabbage and pickles imported from Poland, and the illegally imported Ukrainian cigarettes behind the counter. All most odd indeed, but nice to have close to home. I keep running over to it as I think of things I desperately need while finishing up my PhD. In the middle of a chapter on the theory of travel, I suddenly decide that what I absolutely need before writing another line is…..a chocolate bar! Or that my dinner will not be complete unless I get up and go buy some of that pickled cabbage! Or that AT THIS EXACT MOMENT, I need to clean the kitchen, and for that I need to go get some…sponges!
Perhaps even more perplexing thus is the fact that over the past 12 years that I have been a student, my procrastinating tactics have hardly altered. Over this long period of academic pursuit, I have never lived in the same place longer than 12 months, yet in every grimy flat where I have lived, in all 6 countries where I have I rented places, I have managed to find the appropriate corner shop to visit 5 times per evening in exam or paper writing season. I am sure the owners of all of these corner shops have thought I was insane. About a year ago, I found myself back in a neighbourhood in Moscow where I had previously shared a flat with a mate. For nostalgia sake I went into the 24 hour corner shop I had plagued in my time there. The same long suffering woman was still working there. She looked at me and sighed: “have you graduated yet?” she demanded.
Hopefully in a few more weeks I will finally be able to respond YES!