Uplifting Day

My Mate Flocky Bicep suggests a meet at our local Costa but he cannot give me a lift back as he is on his motorbike.  No problems, I needed to go and see the Jeweller man and see about dad's watch and it is the most perfect day, hardly any breeze, perhaps nudging 28 to 30 Degrees Centigrade.  So I have a nice slow walk to the Coffee shop and see the Jeweller who tells me much as I expected that Dad's watch is worth about £100 wholesale and perhaps up to £300 retail.  To service it will cost around £200.  There were a lot of these Long Service Watches in the 1960s to 1980s until the world decided that employers didn't need to show any loyalty to employees any longer (and vice versa).  So the market is a bit flooded with them.  It is, Flocky and I agree, a very nice watch and the word "Elegant" and "Stylish" come to mind - well it is a Rolex of sorts.


So we have a civilised coffee (or three in fact) and I have my first Caffè Macchiato and loved it - that's on my list forever.  Flocky has to go to work and I wander back home past the Privet and other hedges that exude the smells of a warm July day.  the birds are chirping away in the hedgerows and the sun is wonderful and warm.  I get pulled into the local pub by the "beer magnet" which I believe does exist and I have two wonderful pints of something called "Hooky" a guest ale whilst locals come in and we chat away about the weather and how we are and also a bit of nostalgia as the bar man is off with the Boys Brigade to the Isle of Wight for Battalion Camp.  He is in my old group and I remember playing the Bugle and waking up the good people of the area every third Sunday as we paraded around the local street to church parade.


I come away from the pub there are families in the playing field where my father made my brother and I look for Sheep's Feathers all those years ago.  The children are playing in the playground and the boys playing nicely on the football (soccer) pitch.  The mums watch on from the picnic table with bags fill of food and drink.  What a lovely scene.


I walk on through my typical English Village, past the shops, some now shut for lunch, and everything is alright with the world, I'm comfortable in this place, it is safe and it is familiar, the scents waft across and I wander without time or purpose home and think to myself, surely this is what it is about, surely this must be what retirement or heaven should be like?  Warm, friendly, things happening around you but not too loud, a cool drink in the pub, some happy banter and a little breeze and if there had been a Cricket match on the green I would have known I would have arrived in my perfect spot :-)  How good it is when the sun shines.  Sometimes we just need to appreciate the things we have, today was like the early 1970s again when all the summers were hot and warm and I spent the time with my friends, cycling around the woods and parkland, building dams, exploring the woods, playing cricket and football and not having a care in the world (apart from getting home for tea on time of course!).


I looked at my village today in a whole different light and though how lucky I was to live in this little haven on the outskirts of London and on the borders of the green belt.  How nice it was to have a little village pub and a recreation ground, village shops, a tidy road, no graffiti and no dereliction.  Now to carry these thoughts forward, today is a nice day.