Emergence

On my way back to the station following my interview for the job I now have, believing that the interview had gone well enough, I called in at the pub opposite the station for a little celebratory drink before taking the train back to my mum's house where I was living. I think it is important to get a feel for a neighbourhood before making a decision which might involve relocation.

I was immediately struck by the welcome at the pub and the friendliness of the regulars there, so I revisited it a few times after I had begun work but before I began to live here. Since my relocation, this pub has been less convenient than others and so it has not had much business from me, but it has remained a temptation halfway between work and home.
When it was announced that English pubs could re-open on 4th July, this was the place I most wanted to enjoy my emergence from isolation. It is large, out-of-the-way, under-used, very friendly, has a lovely garden and was unlikely to be packed with idiots.

Apart from anything else “Super Saturday” is my first opportunity since the start of lockdown to sit on a piece of furniture that belongs neither to me nor my employer. My first opportunity to sit in a garden with flowers.
At the start of lockdown I could walk through my local flower-free parks but I could not stop and sit.
After eight full weeks I was able to carry my own blanket to the park and sit on that, but local parks are all windy hilltops.

I certainly did not want to spend today in a popular pub struggling to cope with demand, but this place is nicely inconvenient and is run by a lovely gay couple and that, in itself, makes it unattractive to the kind of people I would rather not be rubbing shoulders with.

I could have gone alone and enjoyed myself well enough, but I thought to invite someone I first met the last time I visited the games club back in March. She accepted my invitation and we spent a happy afternoon together getting to know one another at the Riverside.

Best of all, the pub has all-inclusive toilets.

Magic day!