Saturday l went out in the easeful early morning, Dolce & Banana shades up top.
It was life-affirming.
I’d forgotten the pleasure of a long London walk, not dressed up and no place to be. Weekdays are not for strolling as everything’s very important bid-nizz.
Exiting the hotel, there’s a heavy-set fella to my right. We might be the same age, or he’s a decade younger. He’s pushing a trolley down Kingsway, l guess the tube’s brought him to Holborn from the sticks.
l wondered how he got up the stairs because there’s a five gallon plastic pail with his tools in, a dust sheet and a half-bag of plaster on his chariot. The wheels catch on the uneven pavement.
On my walk- Covent Garden, Strand, Waterloo Bridge, Southbank, Westminster, Trafalgar- I see dozens of men and women who got up in the dark to do the things that make London work.
Look around today, they’re everywhere. None of them are wondering about the new, stoooopid, working from home directive.
And there are the poor souls scaring up a coin from tourists out to beat the rush. A polite queue has already formed at the red phone box in the sight line of Big Ben.
Heading for the hotel at the back of nine l find mum, Christine and Matt having luxury French toast outside- ricotta, blueberries, flaked almonds, organic maple- at the Black Penny on Old Queen Street.
Later Sharon, Matt, mum, Christine and l are all anticipation for Moulin Rouge, every one of us blessed. Friday night was dinner in Chinatown and on Sunday a train took them hame to Glasgow in no time.
That fella, my doppelgänger? He came into town for a half-shift, cash in hand, in a nearby office. The good news is his rate’s twice that of a painter, because plastering’s harder to master.
You probably already know Moulin Rouge is a tragedy. I like them. They help me enjoy every day, remembering you ain’t getting a single one back.
(Phantom is still the bestest.)
“When you arise in the morning, think what a precious privilege it is to be alive- to think, to breathe, to enjoy, to love.”
Marcus Aurelius.
Russell Wardrop
CEO