Party! Party?

We held a party last Saturday night, the first for three or four years.  Since we've been giving them at odd intervals since we moved into this house ( a third of a century ago) we're used to the process, but it's interesting to look at what has changed and what has remained the same.

Our friends have changed, for one. Many of the people we knew while the kids were at school have dropped out of our circles, and replaced by people we see more often such as my cyclists and Moonface's book-group members.  We still had a good turn-out, around fifty or so.  Where was the dancing? Our age has crept up on us so that this year, no-one took the initiative to clear the furniture and crank up the volume. I wasn't expecting much anyway, so didn't take much care with the selection of danceable music. I think that in the event we left the Concretes on repeat for most of the night.  There was too much talking going on anyway.

What has stayed much the same is the procedure.  At heart, we're still running a student party for the cohort of forty years ago.  Buy a couple of cases of beer or lager, a few bottles of wine & non-alcoholic drinks, nibbles and dips, then away you go. It took us a few hours to prepare including a shopping run to Lidl and moving the furniture around - and Voila - entertainment for many.

The Ridgeway

23rd April, St George's Day.

Today was my longest off-road cycle ride for at least 8 years.  Moonface dropped me at Streatley, then I rode unsteadily back towards Chippenham along the Ridgeway and other tracks, passing the Uffington White Horse, Waylands Smithy, Barbury Castle, Avebury, Silbury Hill, Cherhill old airfield,  a canal path and a disused railway line.Five thousand years of history and wide-ranging views of an idealised England.

The kites were flying on the Eastern section, dozens wheeling and soaring above and below me.

Shrinking?

Is it my age or a reading error?
Yesterday I went for my annual check-up for my high blood pressure, so as usual I had my weight & height checked.  The former was as expected but my height was 2cm less than I've ever had recorded before.
Perhaps age is catching up. Time to start hanging from bars and swimming more,

is this the real life ?

or is this fantasy?

Holidays have long been thought of as an escape from "real life", a temporary respite from the world of work and the humdrum.

But that's changed.

On return from a foreign holiday I realised that it's normal life that is the fantasy.  Away in Jamaica, we talked to strangers, felt the sun above and stones below, swam, crammed into sweaty route buses and  used all our senses. Coming home, the virtual world took over. I'm on the computer now, writing into the ether. Facebook, email, mobile phones. They're all unreal, with cyphers on the other end of the signal. I'm isolated by communication technology, not linked.

The idea of an internet cold turkey is becoming attractive.

Interlude

It's been nearly three years since I wrote anything in this blog.
Since then I've been fired from one job and resigned from another, jetted around Europe, visited India & Jamaica, and semi-retired.

It's time to start writing again.

Moses