Moving like a fat man on Friday

Since taking on the 9-5 office job, I've discovered a real pleasure. Heading out the door with the sound of the clocking machine echoing in the background. Boy, does it feel good walking across that carpark on the way to the bus, taking in the clean air and hearing no phones!

It's getting better too with the longer evenings. Already, on Friday, when we are allowed to quit around 4.30pm, the sky is brighter.

I was sitting behind a young Chinese girl on the top deck of the 75 bus this evening, thinking how easy it would be to steal her purse, and remembering just a little over a year ago when it was possible to come home, throw off the work shirt and stumble out into the back garden to listen to the sounds of nature, car alarms, screams and so on. Brilliant. It won't be long now until I can do it again.

In fact, I was reminded how much Springtime is approaching this evening while looking at the few straggling daffodils in our lawn. I must add to or subtract from them next year. One of our cats arrived with a sparrow's feather worn casually over his right temple like an eyepatch on an occasional pirate. We won't feel the time until the blue-tit chicks will be leaping blindly into his mouth from the nest hole in the front of the house.

Ah...! Breathe in a lungful of that spring air!