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."