In Britain's favourite department store asking the advice a thin lady with an Eastern European accent. She had a short grey bob and bird-like features. She recommended that I should look up curtain-making instructions on their website. 'They tell you how to eat your lunch on there', she said. When she had first come to the shop to buy curtains with her husband (before working there) she had been shocked by the price of the made to measure service and gone straight upstairs to buy a sewing machine. I asked if she was an expert. 'I wouldn't consider myself an expert on anything', she replied. She guided me round the shop floor making sure I would have all the equipment I needed. She talked of the need to balance aesthetics with frugality.
Collecting a packet of curtain hooks, I made my request. She grew shy. 'But I never use it', she said. She told me she was from Poland but moved here forty years ago because it was difficult, 'not financially, but politically', she explained. She has been working in the fabric and curtain department for ten and a half years.
'I wish you all the best', she said as she handed over the goods. I wished her the same. 'I think you are very brave, making curtains'. I left the shop with a bag full of fabric, lining and pleating tape feeling like a hero.
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