The sun shone again today. We’ll start to get used to it. As I ran round the village I reflected that soon I will shed a layer for running. My warmer hooded top will have to be put away until the autumn. I might even get around to shorts and a sleeveless top, but maybe not immediately. Granddaughter Number Two, however, is already protesting that it is too hot for her!
Later we went out catch a bus into Oldham and then a tram to Manchester to meet our friend Colin for lunch. He had suggested a Persian place on Cheetham Hill Road. At the last minute before we set off there was a message from him: could we phone the place and book a table?
So, at the bus stop I tried and got their answering machine: “Sorry, we are not available right now. Please leave your name and number and we’ll call you back.” Then the bus arrived, so I put my phone away. At the tram stop I tried again and received the same message. This time I left my name and number. No-one called back or if they did, it was when the tram went into one of its dead zones. At Victoria station I called again and got through to a real live person. He seemed surprised that I was booking for 1.00 but I assured him that was correct.
Then I looked at the time: 12.52. And we were 15 minutes walk away from the restaurant. I called him back and rearranged things - how we laughed!
Our friend Colin had arrived but otherwise the place was quite empty. As it filled up over lunchtime it became obvious that our little group was just about the only group without anyone of Persian/Iranian extraction - usually a good sign of genuine recipes and cookery. The food was indeed very good. The saffron ice cream for dessert was divine.
We’ve not had lunch together for a long time. It used to be regular occurrence when we were all in Galicia. Since the pandemic we’ve not been in Galicia so much and at the moment Colin is in the Uk for family reasons. We caught up on news of all our comings and goings, our adventures here and there. We discussed restaurants in the UK and Europe. We groaned at the price of a glass of wine in the UK. And we managed to avoid matters of politics and current affairs the whole time we were together! We’ll save arguments and controversies for another occasion.
Phil and I got back to Oldham just in time to miss a bus back to Delph. Having travelled for free on our bus passes for the rest of our travels (an advantage we had to explain to our friend Colin), we decided not to wait a further 30 minutes and looked for a taxi. Well, in addition to making access to the bus station more difficult - just one access point rather than several as in the past, presumably for safety reasons - and as well as seeming to change the bus bay for for our number 350 bus every time we go there, they had closed the taxi rank! Eventually we discovered where it had been moved to, which led to an interesting discussion with the driver about all that is wrong with our local council!
In fact we had a very political discussion all the way home and concluded that none of us know who to vote for in tomorrow’s elections! The driver thanked us for the interesting chat!
Phil has headed out again to organise a chess match. This happens from time to time on a Wednesday - a good day for it to happen as our daughter works late on Wednesdays catching up with marking and planning at her school while her partner collects the small people from school. This means she can swing by our house and give Phil a lift to chess club if needed.
Lately, as the days have grown longer, she has also taken to going for a late Wednesday afternoon walk with an old friend. At some point in the late afternoon I looked out of the window and saw that the sunshine which had been with us all day had turned into light drizzly rain. I bet it’s raining on our Ellen, I thought to myself. And, yes, later she turned up rather wet!
And then the sun came out again. Maybe summer has arrived after all.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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