Empty

This is Dunoon's Argyll Street at just after 8am this morning. It's empty, though there are some cars about, heading for the Western Ferries. The first builders are standing about at the new flats being built just to the right of where I am standing, and the lights are on in the cafe on the corner to my left. A lone bird sings, tentatively, and the first light in the sky shows that day is near. The Christmas lights have shone through the night. 

When I return an hour later, after swimming in a wonderfully quiet pool, the lights are out. People are hurrying to work, children are late for school. The sky is a uniform, heavy grey and it is raining heavily. There is loud hammering from within the building site. It feels like a different world.