A Month Of Sundays

Today was...great. Just great.

It was the kind of day that d and I always used to have throughout the Summer - well, I say always, I mean at least once. Y'know...one Summer. A few years ago. When I still used to mow the lawn, and spend at least one day at the start of Summer murdering Triffids, so our garden was at least a vaguely habitable environment for human beings.

Today, we thought about going for a stroll. Then we thought about not going for a stroll after all. We Shared a look. A kind of "Hey, remember when we used to-" look, and wandered out into our garden. I grabbed a couple of handfuls of particularly noxious, sticky Triffids that had begun to strangle the table. Then we shared a couple of words, and set up our chessboard.

I should explain - we haven't played chess in about a year, but it used to be an end-of-evening thing, a calm-down, talk-it-out, re-communion time. I know what you're thinking - some people have sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll at the end of an evening, right? Well yeah, we're some people too, but that's a) not funny and b) none of your damn business...which if you're the kind of people I think you are, you know and accept already. They point about chess is that it was a Together-Time thing, an easing of the day thing. And, for at least that one Summer, it was a Summer thing.

Setting up Fiona, and Donkey, and Puss In Boots - sorry, did I not mention, it's a Shrek chess set? Frankly mystifies me that people would have anything else - it felt like the whole damn world could take a number. The world was outside our little bubble of greenery and Triffids, our little table with its plastic painted dragons and donkeys and fairy godmothers moving, and all that mattered was inside it. And I breathed out, in a way it struck me that I hadn't done for a long, long time. I've been so wrapped up in myself, in this quest, in work, in trying to bike and write and blog and drive myself and other nuts with calorie-values that I've missed the obvious easy joys my life can easily hold.

When we'd played a few games of Together-Chess, we moved on to Yahtzee. I've never gotten the idea of Yahtzee, because, let's face facts here, I'm a journalist, I don't do numbers. But tonight, suddenly, it made sense. All the numbers lined up and obeyed me in my brain, the combinations rattled through and settled, and my brain understood it all. If I was going for the quick gag, which, when I started this entry, I think was my intention, I'd tell you it's all the subconscious calorie-counting I've been doing, making sense of numbers in a whole new, utterly depressing way. But really, I think it was just the breathing out and sharing time, freeing me up in a way I hardly remember in recent times.

Like I say, it was a damn good day.

Tomorrow of course, the world floods back and there's work, and blood tests and doctors appointments to make, and lots more Stuff To Do. But that's what Mondays are for. Today was a Sunday, and it's been the kind of day that really, I think we both think there should be more of. How about we make July a month of Sundays? Anybody mind?