After the rush

I had a free day today, and set off in bright but bitterly cold conditions to meet my friend J at the Trinity Rooms, which has become a warm space: a place where people can gather to enjoy hot drinks (and often hot food) at low cost, and socialise, without having to pay to heat their own homes all day.

J had brought a disparate crowd. We managed to converse. The centre was very busy: food bank activity was going on in the background, and a crowd of refugees and asylum seekers arrived, having walked up the hill from the bus station, from whence they'd arrived from Gloucester. Two workers accompanied them.

I stayed afterwards to read in the warmth, but people kept coming to talk to me! So I walked home, having signed up to help cook on Christmas day. The house is very, very cold.