SPECIAL FRIENDS - BCAM23

On the way to meet some special friends today, I decided as I was walking past the Fire Station that I would call in and show them my Blip of the pink doors - I duly rang the bell and it was answered by a handsome fireman named Jake.  I showed him the Blip from last week and explained about Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which he said he was aware of, but he was surprised to see that the doors were pink - I guess they don’t have time to even look at them, so he asked if I could send the link to him by email, so I duly did that.  I also thanked him and all his colleagues for all they do for us.  What a start to the morning - meeting a handsome fire fighter - unfortunately, he wasn’t wearing anything pink, so I didn’t ask if I could take his photograph!

I was due to meet my friend, Linda, and her daughter, Vyara, who were travelling from Cheltenham to Swindon today but had a call to say they were delayed because of traffic so I decided to take a detour and went into Queens Park to have a wander round to see if there were any pink flowers about.  On my way round, I met a lovely lady called Dien, who had obviously come to feed the ducks with her little boy.  I  chatted to them for a while when she told me that she was of Chinese origin, but had been born in Vietnam and brought up in Canada - you can imagine my delight - so I gave her my first heart of the day.

A little later, I met up with Linda and Vyara at Dapaolo Simply Italian, a Delicatessen and Café, almost next door to our dentist, where coffee is just £1 a cup and they have the most delicious Italian pastries.  We all had to sample the pastries of course, and enjoyed our coffee, hot chocolate and chat.  We laughed a lot and enjoyed one another’s company, particularly as I don’t get to see Vyara that often - and what a lovely young lady she has become.  

I told my granddaughter about this little café, as she was saying last week that the prices at Starbucks are really exorbitant, so I hope she will visit - and of course, the pastries are delicious too and 50p. for a scrumptious canolli filled with either white or dark chocolate, pistachio or lemon, is a bonus.

As Vyara was wearing an anorak with pink flowers, I asked if they would mind being my Blip for today.  They said they were quite happy and I just happened to have some pink BCAM ribbons left over from my trip to Debenhams last week, so we all attached one to our clothes.  Originally it was just going to be a shot of the two of them, but Linda asked why I wasn’t going to be in the photograph too, hence the three of us.  I gave both Linda and Vyara a heart, and also gave one to Conchetta, an Italian lady I have known for many years and who was also having her delicious coffee at the café.  A very good day for hearts!

Paolo, the owner, saw that I was struggling to take a decent selfie, so offered to take it for us, but in the true spirit of Blip, I politely refused, piled up some magazines and then upturned one of the cups - which was empty by now, and rested my phone on the saucer - this was the result, and we were happy with that.

Please continue to click on this link so that those who cannot afford to pay may have a free mammogram - the month is almost over, but your clicks will have made a tremendous difference, so thank you to all those who have helped.

A cup of coffee
     shared with a friend
          is happiness tasted
               and time well spent.
Arabic Proverb