I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form (Bob Dylan)

I struggled to buy some Isopropyl Alcohol recently.

Went down on a coffee run from work and popped into the chemist for some contact lens cleaning stuff and...oh yeah - could I have a big bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol please?

Being the professional school teacher that I am, I was, of course, dressed in my customary shirt and tie holding a tray with two take out coffees on it.

I must have looked dodgy.

Suddenly the shop went quiet, the nice lady serving me looked at the floor and a man in a white coat approached me from his platformed area behind the counter.

BTW - I'm with Seinfeld on this. Why do they need to be higher than us? And what's with the white coat anyway? Are they performing such delicate operations up there they need to be dressed in sterile white coats?



My dad (a pharmacist) would have liked that!

Anyway - he walked purposefully towards me and sizing me up as a potential deviant, asked what I wanted the Iso..A for!

Clearly he thought my shirt and tie and coffees were an elaborate cover.

"Um - it's for...um...er...cleaning records", I eventually offered.

Apparently the stuff can be used for other purposes!! Who knew?

He smiled, so I managed to score three bottles of the stuff. 

Spent today cleaning up a stack of vinyl I got from a local second hand dealer (among all the dusty Val Doonican, Ivan Rebroff, James Last and Nana Mouskouri there were a few pearls that he let me have for my appraisal) and now they are playable at least. 

Jobriath (a pretty cool find) is a little crackly but hasn't stuck yet and the crackles add a layer of character. 

Thanks Mr Chemist!

Love and peace - Wozza