Saturday 28th November Day 24 lockdown

A friend of a friend in Berko very kindly charged our power banks overnight which we collected late morning after looking round the more expansive Berko Saturday market. There was a lovely cheese stall, meat, fish, veg – all you need to enable your supermarket shop to be very occasional, which might explain why the market was very busy for a Saturday in lockdown! An eminently sensible way to shop really – outdoors and relatively easy to maintain a social distance. Not so fun in the rain but the weather was kind and the slightly Christmassy atmosphere seemed to cheer everyone around. Lots of takeaway beverages – you can tell the popular coffee shops by the length of the pavement queues and the overflowing bins full of disposable cups! It’s good though to see people helping to keep fragile businesses afloat.

I had a call out of the blue yesterday from a friend of about 50 years standing (we obviously met in childhood!) who has been reading my blog as it appears and just wanted me to know it brought a smile to her face. It warmed the cockles of my heart. You realise, once you start writing, that it’s a fairly solitary and time consuming occupation, that also leaves you exposed as you open up about what’s actually going on in your head. To know that someone can relate to it is very affirming. That doesn’t mean they have to agree with what you are saying. The older I get the more I realise life is a rich tapestry of colour made up by each and everyone of us and our individual unique contribution to the world we are part of. K, my friend, mentioned radiators and drains – a brilliant description of those who radiate out energy and those who drain it from other people. I know I’d rather be a radiator giving off warmth and love but we all have our drain days. That’s life!