The assistant bends over the bread counter conspiratorially.
"So I heard you are going to Victoria Falls on Valentine's Day?" he asks with a sly grin. Last month he told me his wife was "causing me trouble". She's pregnant, a first-time mother and she's grumbling, he says. He wants to send her back to her rural-based parents, as husbands can here. "Vic Falls I wish," I say in the most matronly manner I can manage. Oops, forgot the wedding ring this morning.
This week it's Valentine's Day and not the Makoni factor (the unexpected electoral challenge to RGM from his former finance minister whose first name Simbarashe means -- scarily for his opponents -- power from God) that's on everyone's lips I meet, though some foreign press reports say otherwise. Zimbabweans are obsessed with Valentine's Day. Bare shops are suddenly stocked with red things: there are zhing-zhong red knickers in Husseins clothing store and red diaphanous nighties that wouldn't last a nail-rip on sale in the new boutique. In the newsagents opposite, plastic heart boxes lie next to the furry mini-Santas left over from the last holiday. "Are you ready for Valentine's Day?" the shop assistant giggles in Biggie Best furnishings (I'm not: she is). The pavements are dotted with people wearing red. Elections might be next month but Valentines' Day is one of the main items on today's morning news bulletins, with the reporter praising the "lovely" Valentine's Day outfits he's seen (Zimbabwe state media breaks most journalism school rules). One of the presenters reads out a selection of love poems and there's even a list of videos we should be watching today.
The bad news is that the annual inflation rate's reached a staggering 66,000+ percent, but today no-one's taking any notice. Hang economic crises and elections, just watch Casablanca
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