He can feel it just around the corner, he can feel it on every breath

[venta]

This evening, I am off to have fun (Mark Thomas @ The Royal Opera House). Which means I have to leave work early. Which means I had to get to work early. So this morning I was out the house before 7am.

It was still dark as I walked down to the station, and very cold. A lady was scraping ice off her car windscreen; that's the first hard frost I've seen this year. The manhole covers in the pavement glittered at me.

The air was very still, every streetlight had its own little halo around it. Above the rooftops, the sky was an almost-summer pale blue, fading to a deeper colour above my head. I love the moment every year when I first see the combination of glowing lights against crisp, dark blue skies that tells me winter's here.

It wasn't quiet - it's never quiet. I could hear the hum of the M40, the rumble of the Heathrow air traffic, and the engines of the passing cars. But the cold clips the edges of the birdsong and makes it carry further and louder.

Despite the dry leaves round my feet, and the hard lines of the bare trees, everything seemed brightly alive in the clear morning.

Hello, winter.

Comments

[uitlander]

I saw Mark Thomas on Sunday. It wasn't his usual fare, and whilst it was rather sentimental and sweet in it's own way I did come away with the impression that the message was prominent figure manages to wangle a special deal for his family and then brags about it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh, that wasn't how I took it. I did think "stand-up does something meaningful, but with half an eye on getting a show out of it", but I think he conceded that one :)