Working away in the Washeroo of the Best Cafe Ever, with tons of cups, plates and pots and jugs, I noticed I was alone, and there was someone on the other side of the counter. It thinks me. The other side of anywhere is going to make you feel a bit dodge. I know, we know, those of us in the hospitality whatever, that a welcome is so important, that moment you swing in all gym fit, or wobbly on sticks, or just ok with yourself all the way up to that counter. If you get an immediate recognition, a welcome, even if we are five miles behind on soups and quiches and the best coffees on the island (it has been said and many times), you feel welcome. We like that. We want that. So let me dip to remove a wash at solar degrees, thank you health and safety, no judgement, rising immediate, my glasses a fog. All that in minutes, less.

This is a new song for me. And more, a life change. I look at my olding upper arms, and see a swell. not much, but more than I ever thought I would ever see. It ruffles my chuckle, it does. I know I’m in the Autumn of my life, maybe more, but this does not distress me at all. At each, and often awkward turn in my life, I have remembered who I am. To be honest with the shit that came in, the shit that comes in to all lives, I did founder. For me, it’s rocks. I live around them, they are a safe place and a rocky end.

But, even in the thin of things, there is a song.