Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

 

Yesterday...

The afternoon started well, sitting in the Chiswick House grounds watching the ducks, coots, swans, geese and their little uns all scavenging for food by the lake. A gentle breeze offset the summer sun, and all in all it was very pleasant sitting there, doing some work and listening to some jazz.

With the first cloud in the sky, I knew this was not how it was going to continue.

After about an hour a family wandered by, little kid in tow. They passed him some bread and he dutifully pelted the birds with it. As is the case anywhere in London the local birds were soon swamped as the 5th airborne pigeon division descended, scattering them and sending discord through the locals. After a while, with no bread left they left and I was back to peaceful harmony.

This harmony was not to last however as a group of 10 or so adults and kids descended and set up a picnic about 20 yards away. I wouldn't have minded so much, but there is a whole park to sit in, arguably with better views. Perhaps my aftershave is more effective than I thought; either that or they were lured here by the warbling of Norah Jones. I tried shifting to The Lost Prophets, but that didn't shake them.

Now I don't mind kids playing. Its what they do. What bugs me is that parents don't point out that in an area bigger than 10 football pitches, they a) shouldn't play chase round my bench; and b) shouldn't kick a football at me. Once on the foot I can live with, but then to have to duck to avoid a shot to the head is more than enough. You try doing this with a laptop on your lap. This coupled with the sounds of footballs bouncing against railings, kids screaming and the adults playing softball was enough to test Jesus.

Sadly, I am not Jesus, and at this point was losing my patience.

It was beyond all reach by the time an elderly foreign lady sat by me on the bench and proceeds to talk to her husband about something very important. Well it must've been judging by the volume. I turned up the Lost Prophets, and she just talked louder. I began to loose all hope of attaining my earlier relaxed state.

Strangely enough, you may think there is no happy ending in this story. To be honest there isn't really, except for the random coincidence of events that were to follow. Luckily, or unluckily if your the old lady in question, for some reason she attempted to head the softball as it careered towards me at full pelt. Given the thunk her forehead made as it connected with the ball, I am confident of the fact that had the old lady not been sat next to me, there would've been a good chance that the offside drive would've hit me either in the head or the laptop screen, thereby destroying my mood, possibly for the rest of the weekend. She left shortly afterwards, leaning on her husbands arm. The adults stopped playing softball following several unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the ball from the lake where the lady had headed it. The kids fell over through exhaustion. I enjoyed the peace and quiet with Norah for a couple of songs. Then I called it day and went to work.

6 Jun 2004 10:49 | (0) comments | Work

Related Entries

By Date

Monthly Archive for June 2004

Previous entry: « Right Brain Vs Left Brain

Next entry: » CSS Lists

By Category

Category Index: Work

Previous entry: « Priceless

Next entry: » Days Like This

By MySQL

• Things I learnt Yesterday