tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post8667455405638188762..comments2023-10-30T09:26:32.732+00:00Comments on Now's the time: portrait old boys tractAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-31635276828993950232012-04-28T17:13:20.437+01:002012-04-28T17:13:20.437+01:00I mentioned the Retreat's old men to Heidi. Ar...I mentioned the Retreat's old men to Heidi. Army, she suggested. But they were not tidy enough to have been professional solders. Distractions already admited prevented further scrutiny. <br /><br />What was interesting was that I recognised them of being in the same age group as me, as dogs recognise other dogs of the same breed.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-57936501203018824372012-04-28T07:22:42.410+01:002012-04-28T07:22:42.410+01:00It seemed to be a day of strange groups of men. On...It seemed to be a day of strange groups of men. On the train back, four or five Welshman hed assembled, all rotund, fortyish, some if not all wearing black suits. There was a certain provincial childishness about them which should have been attractive but wasn't. They talked with hollow enthusiasm about nothing at all. One of them started to intone a familiar song, breaking off to laugh (but without conviction) at each feeble joke it contained. Another point that set them aside from the rest of the people in this packed carriage is that none of them used a mobile phone during the journey. Sadly this wasn't a sufficient gesture to gain admittance to the human race.<br /><br />I mentioned this group to Mrs LdP when I got home and she started to speculate about their provenance. Eventually she concluded they'd been to a funeral in London. I said they seemed to be in a happy state of mind (Funerals don't preclude this, she said), they were not drunk, they were full of themselves about having been to London and - rather more remarkable - they regarded being on a train as a genuine event.<br /><br />They were strangely and continuously irritating.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.com