I was enjoying an early dinner one Saturday evening at Cassia in Fort Lane. I was minding my business and making a point of not looking at diners around me. When you're in booth seating and in close proximity to others, it's only polite, I always feel, to give people privacy rather than eyeball them as they sit down.
So I was oblivious to who was beside me until someone called my name from the next table. I looked across. OMG. I hadn't seen him for ages. Wow. My enthusiasm rapidly waned when I remembered the circumstances under which our relationship had ended. I'd simply stopped calling him. I hadn't even had the decency to explain. It's not you. It's me. I just cut him off cold turkey, heartlessly. In short, I dumped him.
Still, we got through the awkwardness and had a friendly chat. I was silently rueing the fact I was having a bad-hair night and I think he joked at one stage about knowing someone who could have given me a good blow-wave. That, of course, would be him. He'd been my hairdresser for maybe about seven years. I loved the way he did my hair; he never dished up the same style twice. I loved his easy chitchat.
I'd followed him all over town - from the Viaduct to Newmarket to three separate establishments in Ponsonby. (The only place I didn't venture to was on the North Shore; it was a bridge too far. We reconnected once he relocated to the mainland.) But then, finally - and, as it turned out, fatally - he moved further from the city. Once the motorway entered the equation, the level of convenience dived and my devotion was over.
Ultimately, it was pure geography that made me change hairdressers.
Since then I've discovered that there is etiquette involved in ditching your long-time hairdresser. Some people reckon you should send flowers. (Yes, flowers!) Evidently, at the very least, I should have sent a Dear John note explaining the situation. Oh, well, at least I'll know for next time.