Wednesday, September 15, 2010

wall, contrast, unexpected


Posted by PicasaA wall above a shop peels to reveal messages from the past.

A man of substantial girth leads a thin, reluctant spaniel across Grosvenor Road. On the other side, he admonishes the still restive spaniel:  " Now, calm down."

Over the years I have exchanged emails fairly regularly with my pal, Barrett Bonden on various matters usually of a literary nature. It seems to have become tacitly the only means of communication between us apart from less frequent lunches at the  Indian restaurant, which has come to be known as "The Bloggers's Retreat". Breaks from routine are almost, by definition, a good thing. They are refreshing, even invigorating. So it is a pleasure to receive, quite unexpectedly, a telephone call from him. I do not as a rule complain of monotony or I hope inflict  it on others. But I am thinking, as a result of his call, to  try to do something unexpected every day, just for its own sake.

2 comments:

marja-leena said...

Oh, I do like that photo very much, I could see it as a print. And I agree about breaks from routine and doing something unexpected, though perhaps not necessarily every day so that they not become routine too.

Roderick Robinson said...

As you know I made the call as a means of forestalling an activity you had planned and which I imagined to be close to its deadline. As I dialled the number I had the mirror reaction to what you have described - I felt guilty of intrusion. Fortunately Heidi answered the phone and I was able to embark on an entirely different line of conversation and my worries were set at rest by the time you arrived at the phone. You'd imagine we were teenager lovers.