Short version  Just a tiny bit out of synch / still negative (CV testing that is)


Longer Version


It's the little things that inform you; the stuff that just happens and is over in an instant but stays with you - you know it mattered. Maybe not immediately but an hour or two later when it's still preying on your mind, you realise it was significant, and later still once the flurry of the day subsides you can actually pinpoint the what and the why.

My superpower? I've got two. Recognising a location from the merest hint of a background of a photo is one. I sit and look at blip and it's home page with the grid of photos and there will be ones that jump out at me because there's something I recognise about a shape or a shade, a colour or a hue, maybe even the font on a street sign; who knows? But that's what will catch my eye and demand closer inspection. So I'll click on it and go 'oh yeah, that's ....[insert location here]...'

My other one is catching things as they fall out of cupboards when they've been tardily stacked and the door hastily closed on them; the surprise stored up awaiting the unwary who next venture into the cupboard. I've lost count of the number of jars of thyme I've clung onto, the pots of cream saved from splattering on the floor. I marvel at the ones where a glass has been knocked off a kitchen work top and instinctively I flick out a foot and kick the vessel back up into a poised hand. 

I was never a goalkeeper as a lad; I couldn't do the agility - I'm just too tall for that kinda thing. However in my late teenage years in a very unScottish way took to cricket. I worked for a local farmer during the school holidays. He was approaching retirement age and he and his wife had no children of their own. He needed help with certain tasks and although I was already kind of 'working' for another farmer, they negotiated a deal whereby I went to work for Willie on an ad hoc basis. There were perks. His wife was an excellent baker. So for tea breaks there was always something decent to munch on with the tea. And he loved cricket. So even on hot summers days when hay making was in full effect, we'd stop for lunch at 12, go inside for lunch and watch the end of the morning session until lunch at Headingly or Lords or wherever. 

I particularly remember the West Indies side of 1984. Who wouldn't? Even know I can reel off the 11 players - Greendige, Haynes, Gomes, Richards, Lloyd, Dujon, Harper, Marshall, Baptiste, Holding and Garner. You think I had to look that up? Ha! I could probably get about 50% of the England line up (Gower, Lamb, Foster, Willis er....) but the Caribbean super stars were so impressive in their chosen field. After a summer of watching it, the following summer I figured I'd quite like to play and although I didn't stick at it, I do remember having a certain affinity with slip fielding. Unconsciously I worked out that I needed to be relaxed with a zen approach rather than focussing intently.  Over time I could pick the way a batsman moved either forward or back or to leg or off and instantly know how likely I was to be called into action. And I slowly developed an impressive ability to snaffle chances that presented themselves. 

Fast forward many years later, the skill is still there. So today as I was getting the bin bag out of the bin and rounding up the recycling I nudged my favourite mug. It's an Emma Bridgewater half pint mug. It's got a painting of a black and white greyhound (IKR - how can a black and white dog be a grey hound?) that shares more than a passing resemblance to my one and only dog Stan. I've had it for over 20 years, possibly nearer 30. Try as I might, I could only watch as it teetered on the edge of the work top, then tipped over the edge. I was powerless. The good news is only the handle snapped off it. The main body of it is intact. 

So hours later when She phoned after work. "And how are you...?" I remember the mug and my inability to stop it tumbling to the ground and said "I'm a bit off today; everything's a tiny bit disjointed" And related the above. I'd not really fully formulated the narrative; it just sort of flowed out in a stream of conciousness kind of way. 

That was Thursday. That and DPD didn't deliver my new router despite the main door being open all day; I also sorted out Alex's new settings for his diabetes pump, did a miniscule amount of work. But yeah. Just a tiny bit out of synch