Nature rules

href=”https://englishfiftysomething.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/apes.jpg”>/>

 

Today so much sand was blowing from the beach onto the roads that trucks from the council, that normally clear drains, were being used to suck away the drifting sand everywhere. It appeared to be a never ending task.  As I drove I could see the sand moving like waves up the road, gathering where it could. Drifting like snow. Heaping against walls and filling spaces.  

Left to it’s own devices our world would very quickly become wild and swamped by the natural. It would devour the manmade relatively easily and quickly. Fascinating to watch but the power of it was frightening.

“They think my mother’s ashes are marijuana.”

“I have never planned anything illegal in my life,’ Aunt Augusta said. ‘How could I plan anything of the kind when I have never read any of the laws and have no idea what they are?”  

What a truly fabulous book this is! Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene. I am listening to this in my car (as this is sometimes even better than reading if someone enchanting is reading it). So very  entertaining and of it’s time . It’s amusing and moving and also asks us to question our lives, as our storyteller is asked to question his.

Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his  Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at the funeral of, who he supposes to be, his mother . Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon his dahlias and the Major next door to travel her way, Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay.  Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals, CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban life.

If you want to waft along on a breeze of travel, adventure and social rule breaking, then this is for you.

The empty face of shopping

Today I am driving north to The Metro Centre with my daughter. We need (if that’s actually true!) to visit IKEA and so will briefly visit said shopping centre. Now I know that shopping is a necessary task and that we all enjoy it to greater or lesser degrees…but I must say that these indoor shopping centres are soul less and depressing. Groups of people following each other around corridors of shop after shop, in artificial light with artificial air is no longer fun. Give me a fresh day, with gusts of wind to keep reminding me I am alive, and whatever light the day may give me. Going into a shop “for a warm ” is much more satisfying than simply going into a shop. So…I brace myself and hope that today’s shoppers are a lot more pleased to be alive than the usual troop.

Mother of the Bride

My girl is getting married in 16 months time. A momentous time for her, him and me.
As she has never been the “I have had my wedding planned since I was 10 yrs old and here’s my scrap book with all the pictures, colours, flowers, dresses and table decorations that I want ” sort of girl, we are slowly tiptoeing our way through the elimination process.
I call it that as we are gradually finding out what sort of wedding her and her beau are wanting by listening to the frequent addition to the list of the things she DOESN’T want!
“I’m not wearing a strapless dress as everyone does!”
“We don’t want to stand around smiling like idiots for 20 minutes while everyone takes photos of us holding a cake knife!”
“I wouldn’t normally wear a tiara so I’m not putting one on for my wedding!”
“And I certainly don’t want the photographer at the house before the wedding taking photos of me while I get ready! I’m not going to arrange my shoes in an artisitic way for a photo, or smile into a mirror, or put my lipstick on while he clicks away!”
But despite the strong objections to accepted (for whatever reason) etiquette that she voices, I see the picture forming.
A beautiful girl who simply wants to look the very best version of her normal self that she can look. A day that allows her and her beau to relax and enjoy themselves.
A wedding that looks like a wedding, sounds like a wedding, but is different enough to stand out in the guest’s memories.
So…bring on the barn, sequin shoes and arriving on the bus (The last one is a joke…!)

People

I am a lover of Alan Bennett and his raw life observations. So much of life can be amusing, entertaining or simply interesting.

I love to coffee alone, with something lovely to read and half an hour to spare, with half an ear and eye to what is going on around me. A coffee shop yesterday saw me sitting next to a table of 5 people in their either late 60s or early 70s, discussing nothing much.I did however hear something based around cheap shops…which I know for a fact more and more people are using as money needs to go further.

One chap was saying how he gets his colgate in a pound shop, and a couple of his friends were doing their very best to find reasons why this can’t possibly be a bargain.

” Oh, it’s probably a smaller size”

“No…I’ve checked and it isn’t”

“Maybe it’s old stock”

“Nope…I’ve checked”

And so on and so on.

It fascinates me to see that there are still people (who consider themselves well-to-do and up- to- date) who insist on doing things exactly the way they have always done it and no one will convince them to change. After all someone may see them in there and goodness knows what that will do to their social standing!

I admired the chap for standing his ground with his snobby friends and am even more determined to carry my Aldi carrier bags with pride!