Standing out from the crowd

And still we shiver, but hope springs eternal in the human breast and we are assured that the boiler transformer is on its way and will be installed this afternoon.
Heaven help the engineer if he fails to give us heat.

My morning walk was through lots of dull dried up leaves, but this one stood out from the mediocrity of its neighbours. I felt some empathy with it as I strutted my stuff in a new mustard coloured down coat among a welter of fawn, grey and navy apparel of the other pedestrians. This is the kind of colour I would have never have contemplated in my prime 20 or 30 years ago, but hey, I have nothing to lose now, even if I'm not yet ready for wearing purple and wielding a stick.........although I do have the red hat and handy railings!

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.