Sunday Choices
I had some unexpected free time today - not that my time with my son is not free - but often , especially in the winter it is spent in the house avoiding making his perpetual cold worse. This afternoon he was going around to see a friend from two till five so I had some choices to make about how to spend this time. I enjoy these sort of choices but I don't always find them easy. Today - the choices seemed to flow without much effort. My first choice would have been to spend some time with my partner - but this was taken away from me as she was meeting a friend. I decided to go to the gym for a bit. I didn't have to do this. I could easily have gone to the pictures, gone to see a friend, gone home and done some DIY, played guitar and these were all the things I considered before opting for the gym. I've recently joined the gym and I'm on a bit of a roll with it and going on sunday takes a bit of pressure off the number of times I can get there in the week. I finished in the gym at 3.30 and embarked on the next stage of my plan.

This involved going to the Arnolfini, drinking coffee and reading my book. The process involved a number of decisions few of which were strictly rational - but I expect this is not an unusual thing. I was short of time but I decided to park the car in a place a know which is free - meaning that I would have a walk of about 7 minutes to the Arnolfini. I could have parked nearer and paid the fee or I could have gone for coffee somewhere out of town where its easy to park. I didn't feel like doing these things. I like parking near the Ostrich pub because I don't like paying for parking and I like the walk by the river. Why to do I like the Arnolfini? Actually I prefer the Watershed - but walking there would have taken a few more minutes and the Arnolfini is good also. I have a warm feeling about the docks in Bristol. Its sort of cosmopolitan and arty and there are people living in boats and I like the river and the sound of the sea birds and no one really belongs there so I feel I do. I like the chance I might bump into someone I know there - even though I didn't really want to today as I was engrossed in my book. I imagine that if I saw a man who looks like me, sitting in the Arnolfini drinking coffee and reading a book, I would think - "He looks like he knows what he wants to do today."

Etiquette
I went to a pub last night. Its called the Duke of York in St Werburghs. I like the pub. Its unusual in that it has a skittle alley and an upstairs bar. I wasn't expecting to go - but I got a text and my partner didn't mind staying in with my son so I went. I'm not used to being out on weekend nights as I usually stay in with him and I noticed how busy it was. I went to the bar to get a round and had to wait a while before I could get to the front row of people waiting to order drinks. There seemed a lot of bar staff and they were certainly not slacking. When a space appeared I moved into it and caught the eye of a barman.
"Who's next?" he said , looking at me. I started my order.
"I think I was before you", said a tall man behind me.
"Sorry", I said - not wanting any trouble.
"I don't think he was", mouthed the barman to me as her served the tall bloke. He placed two pints on the bar.
"Do you think I cold get my drinks?" said the tall man reaching past me as if I was deliberately blocking him.
It wasn't an interaction I enjoyed.

Compliance
I needed to get some shopping yesterday but I didn't want to spend too much time or money on it as both are short at the mo. I was stuck in a queue heading for Tescos and I thought "sod this for a bag of smarties". So I turned around (Turning the car around also) and headed the other way. Cunningly I parked in the Aldi car park but walked from there to a small Tescos. In my mind(where else?) I was thinking - "If I can't get what I want in Tescos, I'll pop into Aldis -Do people say Aldi's? - and have a look. I quite like that Aldi but you never know what they'll have. I got most of what I wanted in Tescos and as I returned to the car park with all my heavy food in my red Rajanis bag, I started to feel guilt about parking the car there. There didn't seem to be a ticket but there were lots of large signs threatening fines for misuse of the car park. I put my stuff in the car and in a shameful act of compliance I went into Aldi. As it was, I found croissants there - which had been absent from the small Tescos. I didn't think I would have bought something just to park there as I reasoned that it must be OK to park there with the intention of shopping but not to find what you were after - a regular Aldi experience.

Moustache
I met a man on sunday with a very long moustache. It was twisted at each end and you could see if from behind. He was an extrovert young man from the north and he carried a Ukelele inside his shirt. He told me about his band which had two uke's a bass and drums. He played amusing covers on the uke as we walked in the snow in the mendips. I took a picture of his to show you but sadly a technical problem keeps preventing me from sharing it with you.