Stuff

That rather nondescript heading suits today, really, for it's not been notable for much other than getting on with things. The weather remained more or less dry for much longer than I expected, so a white wash and a black one were out on the line before elevenses time, and I had them in before the rain arrived in the latter part of the afternoon. I made a tentative arrangement for a jolly with Di on Wednesday, and Himself and I sat down at the computer and finalised arrangements for the only holiday on the horizon - though given my past two attempts to get away I'm in "trust no-one" mode these days.

This all took a surprisingly long time, so it was afternoon before I got down to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. I don't know if it's because 3pm is a better time for meeting people than the morning, but it turned out to be rather a jolly outing: I met someone in the chemist whom I've not seen since at least 20 years - though she told me she'd been at our concert on Tuesday. When the staff behind the counter began joining in our voluble banter (about age, decrepitude, the unwillingness of either of us to acknowledge it ...) we took it outside and continued, laughing like drains and wondering why we'd not met up in all the years since I retired. Our connection had been through school and staff parties, and had always exemplified  one of the things I miss most about my teaching days - the easy, often hilarious banter between people who are thrown together by circumstance but who have come to know each other really well in that context against the common background of school. Somehow, in post-retiral life, it can be harder to achieve that easy relationship on which nothing depends other than enjoyment - and I don't know that I'm making what I mean entirely clear here. Do let me know ...

So it was after 4pm when we finally got out together - to the Co-op to get some parsley which I needed for dinner, and then to the far side of the Holy Loch, where we left the car at Kilmun church and went for a walk along the shore road. We were amused by the oystercatchers; the first one we saw was that fellow perched rather incongruously on a chimney; I've never seen one doing anything like that before. Then there was a solitary fellow with his bright orange, very straight beak, then a pair, sitting on the shore together looking as if they were having a conversation. They were clearly more interested in each other than in us, for they took no notice of us at all. Perhaps they were discussing the wide band of yellow tree pollen which still lines that whole shore of the loch.

The dogs in the various houses we passed, however, must not be used to people walking past their hedges, as we were barked at, with different degrees of ferocity, by at least four different gardens. (Yes, I meant to write that - we never saw the barkers.)  Some of the houses in Kilmun are clearly the relics of an opulent past, with coach houses/stables/outbuildings out the back and forbidding hedges between them and the coast road. 

And that was it, really - except for the man who rang me at midday to tell me he had a delivery for me - a dishwasher, it was. Was I in to receive it? I told him I didn't have a dishwasher and had no room for one and did he have a name on the parcel? Turns out it was going to my son, in Edinburgh, and the man was in Edinburgh - and I was in Dunoon. None of us is sure why he had my phone number, but the parcel was duly delivered safely to the correct recipient. 

See? I told you: stuff.