Shovelling it.

A week to see the dentist? Make that two weeks, as was confirmed once I got a firm booking. Well, that's life and I know other people in a similar position. Relating to what a recent comment said about coincidences being beneficial or not, the rule of karma would say the benefit here would be to make me rise above it which is what I'm now trying to do. I'll certainly be just as happy if my little project goes well, so I'm not doing that badly.

As I expected, I've started on the garden, but as my mum's gardener had to return to Zanzibar for some sort of festival for a month, I was called in to replace him and had the lovely job (for the first and hopefully the last time) of shovelling compost. It contained virtually everything (from the smell) except actual shit and weighed enough as well, and had to be taken out of the bin, put on a wheelbarrow, spread all over the earth and then replaced with new junk to turn into the next lot. I was covered in it by the end as you'd expect and have the washing going round in the machine as I write. Luckily my neighbour let me use his skip yesterday, so (also pretty heavy work) managed to clear a good deal of crap out of my leaking garage that had been there for years. I also met one of the mice who lives there who may or may not have been more surprised than me when I disturbed it (by accident) out of a box. I didn't realise they could jump that high...

Apart from that things are fairly peaceful at the moment, thank god, and I won't look ahead to ruin things but take it while I can. Tomorrow is free all day (first time for weeks) and I can do exactly what I like. My guesses so far include a visit to Homebase and the cycle repair shop for a new tyre, whcih may well sound the pinnacle of banal, but especially if shared, these small local experiences can be far more relaxing and satisfying than the sort of things many people seem to need to do for pleasure, though most are a lot younger than me, and I've done all the 'exciting' things to death and would just like to settle down into a quiet middle aged family life with a decent woman who feels the same (but needn't also be middle aged). I was part of this as a child till I was about 21, and though I had ambitions for far greater things at the time I'd now be happy with the sort of life my own parents had, minus the working hours though. If you look at the sort of typical 1960s TV suburban families in tree-lined roads having dinner parties and the like, that's the sort of life I grew up with, more or less. Apart from being an only child and never hanging on to a decent girlfriend once I was older it was pretty well as I liked it. The highlight was my neighbour who was literally like a wife in being both my closest friend, we shared literally everything and often slept over, but had our first explorations as well. She moved soon after, and I don't think I ever had a female friend as close as that again, but it showed me a view of how things can be when they feel right with someone. We had no inhibitions between each other in any way, and I think that would have been the same whatever age we were as we just worked together. Just to end that story, after she moved she became a lawyer and that was the last time I spoke to her. As she was a year older than me she pushed me around, and didn't see me as boyfriend material when we were older due to my age. As far as I know she got married, and when her name turned up on friends reunited she ignored my email, as so many do there. She'd be 46 now, and probably a millionaire (literally). But I'll always remember her as she was, it doesn't matter what she did after that. Well at least I managed to get lost in a bit of nostalgia there, which is what it's for really.