the train is coming © Lilly Schwartz 2012

Yesterday I ventured out to check whether one of my film rolls was developed already. Last time I brought a colour film to develop on a Thursday it was ready on Saturday. This time this wasn’t the case though and I have to wait a few days longer. I guess I’m still a little impatient when it comes to film. I’m curious, because I used an external light meter this time and I’m not sure I used it correctly for the roll in question.

What was good about the whole thing was that it dragged me out of the house and I managed to take some pictures on the way. I didn’t feel like walking, so I took the subway for the two stops to the drugstore. They use a big lab on the other side of Germany and for now I’m using their cheap but crappy services until I have managed to master my Zorki. It’s unnecessary to spend 5€ per film on developing if the shots are likely to be wrongly exposed or out of focus.

The drugstore is located in the mall at the station Gesundbrunnen and again I managed to get out on the totally wrong side of the station, because it is incredibly badly signposted. One day I will learn and go in the opposite direction of what it actually says. Apart from not getting my pictures I also spent about 20 minutes in a supermarket queue. It was nerve-wrecking, especially since the couple behind me was having half a fight about ice cream (!) and about their weekly food budget, although this was one of the expensive supermarket chains. I felt like turning around and telling them to go to a discounter instead of driving other people nuts with their stupid bickering. For a tight budget they sure also had an odd selection of stuff in their basket. I don’t think they ever heard of vegetables. I guess they don’t make TV spots for that. Luckily it was my turn before I could snap at them and I was out of there as fast as I could. Next time I will dodge that bullet by going to the discounter myself.

This reminds me of a couple of women at the Diane Arbus exhibition who made such silly comments that I skipped a few pictures only to get away from them. When they caught up with us we went back to the pictures we skipped, because they were just so infuriating!

In any case, in the mall I still had a good laugh though when I noticed that the mall photographer with the studio out in the open was advertising erotic photography. Well, I’m sure that would be entertaining for everyone involved!

Well, malls are such strange places …