I love twisted liquorice and when a visiting author suggested we meet at Levy Junction for a chat, I agreed readily as I had been told that the newly opened Food Lovers Market sold liquorice.

The expected traffic congestion and hunt for parking did not materialise. It was a Saturday in the middle of the month which may well be the reason for this.  But it meant that I had a few minutes to spare before the interview so thought I would take a quick look around Food Lovers Market, not only to get my liquorice but to have a good look at what else was available. It is always nice to find yourself with a few unexpected minutes to spare and I was feeling relaxed and enthusiastic about the task at hand.

But so much for that! The good feeling lasted less than ten seconds as I was confronted by a big sign at the door telling me “Spesiale Aanbod”. What the ……….?

Surely it is not that difficult to get your pre-made sign in English?

Or if that is difficult, what about Zulu? I am sure a greater percentage of our population would understand Zulu signs  than Afrikaans signs.

Putting the signs behind me, both literally and figuratively, I was attracted to the colourful display of apples and thought it would make a nice background photo for this article. Whipping out my camera I first stepped back to take a photo of the foreign language sign and then proceeded with the apples.

My plans for an article with good visual representation of the available products (a picture tells a thousand words and all that) was short lived as I was approached by a security guard who pointed out the not very visible sign saying ‘no cameras’. What the …….?

I have never been able to understand how cameras seem to trip a little button in the brains of some people. Sure, I understand, and fully support, that there are security reasons why communications installations and the like should not be photographed. But displays of potatoes and pumpkins?

Really!

No, I was not going to ask for the manager’s permission to take photos. That is the whole point of us doing reviews anonymously – so that we get the same treatment as any of their customers; we do not want the ‘walk around’ and special treatment.

Frankly after all of this, my enthusiasm was very much on the wane, so I took a quick look at the olive oils where the oil is tapped into the bottle whilst you wait, glanced at the double chocolate muffins, had a small bag of liquorice filled and made my way to the till.

This was really an unfortunate interlude as I am sure that the items available for purchase are of good quality and reasonably priced, they have a good selection and a good number of speciality products not available elsewhere. But an Afrikaans sign as I walk into the shop in the centre of Lusaka and then to be approached by beret-clad security guard was more than I could cope with that day.

Perhaps by the next time I have a strong desire for liquorice twists or one of the other variety of sweets that they stock, there may be signs written in English and I will feel more positively disposed towards spending the time taking a look at what they do have on offer.