Flowers

I went to a party today. It is that time of the year. The friend/colleague whose party it was had told us to bring nothing except ourselves. There will be plenty of food and drink, she said.

But when I met the two friends I was going with, we decided to take something. Not food, since she had been so insistent on that, but flowers. We wanted something bright and cheerful.

Instead of going to the big flower shop by the station we had all used for things like this before, we went into a different, smaller flower shop we hadn't used before. There we were greeted by a cheerful and friendly faced man with a face full of smile wrinkles. We explained how much we wanted to spend, what it was for, and asked him if he could do something suitable. He called his wife, who came through and chatted with us a bit. She was also cheerful and friendly. She told us to go through to the attached cafe next door and have a seat while we waited. We did.

After a while she came back and asked if we would prefer "amber, bright, or vivid." We looked at each other, and thought of the friend the flowers were for.

"Vivid," we said, and she went off.

Then we had a little discussion about the difference between bright and vivid. We weren't quite sure what it was, but anyway, vivid seemed like a good choice for our friend. We didn't expect too much – we weren't spending enough for a really flash bunch of flowers, but at least it would be vivid, we thought.

Eventually the woman came back with the flowers, and instantly gained three new regular customers. The other shop never put anything as imaginative as apples in their bouquets. It was PERFECT.