Hot Off The Press

I may be prone to exaggerate just occasionally, but this story is completely true. I was just leaving K mart this morning when I was stopped by an elderly lady who said she wanted to compliment me. It's not unsual for strangers to do that in this part of the world. What could be, I wondered? My new $4.99 watch strap perhaps? Maybe she recognised me from my columns?
Afraid not.
"Did you iron your blouse yourself?" she asked. "I iron and you've done such a beautiful job on it."
This will cause much hilarity in the Decent household, spread across the world as it now is. Grumpy always used to wonder why I bothered ironing anything in England because by the time I squished it into the closet it looked like it had been crumpled up and thrown in the litter basket.
My ironing skills are only second to my cleaning abilities (ie two hours later and everything looks much the same as it did to start with).
The odd thing was, the compliment wasn't even from a shop assistant, who I suspect are trained to always compliment every customer on at least one thing.
So I can only assume it confirms my deepest fears, that the population of Naperville is barking mad. Which is probably why I feel so at home here.