Our long-serving volunteer adviser John writes:
I had a haircut last week. I’m a creature of habit and have had the same one-man barber for 40 years. These days, he commutes from the South Coast to Walton-on-the-Hill two days a week. I suspected he might be closed on Election Day so to be sure of catching him I went a week earlier than usual.
As I sat in the chair facing the mirror, just the two of us, another man came in and sat down to wait. When the normal banter had been going for a while, I heard a voice behind me calling ‘John’. The new customer then got up and was looking me full in the face.
I recognised him but just couldn’t place him. I thought he might be a former colleague from my old organisation in the area. I said: ‘So you’re still local then?’
He replied: ‘My wife was very pleased with the way you helped her last Friday. She wants to send another Swedish lady to you’.
Hearing this, my barber friend was both bemused and (I have to say) amused. But then I remembered. At Citizens Advice our clients often recognise their advisers in the outside world, but we advisers see many clients and don’t always recognise them later.