the morning after

as is often the case you will pay for it the morning after ...
i don't tend to get seriously drunk that often ... and if i do set out to have one of those nights i will stick to the same drink ... a good vodka - ice cold - tonic - and a slab of lime ... if your buying? ... it lessens the effect the next morning if you don't mix the drinks

however the other half of the family has the most terrible mornings after (morning afters?) ... we are talking the not speaking - puking - can't walk without the room swaying type hangover ... so after a failed attempt to eat breakfast and lots of concerned looks from me which occasionally slipped into 'well you've got nobody to blame but yourself' type comments from me ... my lady wife retired back to the bedroom to sleep it off ... quick word with hotel staff to make sure she is not disturbed and i find myself at a loose end ... two minutes walk from covent garden ... a sunday morning ... no shops open ... nobody to call (either got kids or also sleeping off hangovers that were partly my responsibility) ...what to do what to do

only one thing for it really ...drink coffee ... walk around in the unseasonably warm sunshine - listen to iPod loudly (that is the volume up not me loudly listening) - watch the world go by - stop for the odd coffee ... hmmm sounds like a plan

this is where the wandering finished ...


standing looking down into trafalgar square watching cute kids chase pigeons ... sunlight shimmering off the fountains ... iconic london buildings as a back drop ... laughter and chatter as a soundtrack ... and the sense that all was right with the world

a poignant moment of realising that a difficult journey was at an end ... a new chapter was allowed to start ... that all was right with the world ... and that this was what happy felt like

my phone startles me out of my musing and it is the wife who seems to have recovered the power of speech and she joins me in the sunshine ... we check out ... put the roof down ... and wend our way home

sometimes ... and it ain't often ... you really can have the most perfect weekend