playgrounds


the current house backs onto one (hence the "school yard" this morning - not because SP went back, but because the children are once again yelling and screaming all day long a few yards from where I sit and type)


I like that - the noise
.
it makes me feel connected
to a reality other than my own
.
as much as I like the peace and quiet when they're not there, the contrast I suppose; I'll miss it when I move; the new abode has a tiny little courtyard hemmed in on all sides - open to the sky above and I guess soon enough I'll find out how much sun there will be in the courtyard and when

of course, I am fortunate to also have the roof terrace as well - from which I'll be able to see the tube trains trundling past on their tracks which back onto the houses on the other side of the road; The Teen is obsessed with the idea of the roof terrace. . . but more on that another time, back to playgrounds

life's a little like a playground,
isn't it?
.swings . . .

.
roundabouts. . .
.

.
and so on. . .

slides sometimes really really shiney and slippery and you whizz down them so fast that you come off the bottom at speed and bump your backside on the ground, sometimes huge ones which you climb to the top of and then carefully go all the way back down the stairs because it looked a little too scary and then you watch other people do it and they whoop and holler as if it's really really good fun and you wonder why you're such a scaredy cat. . .

those precarious timber stumps which you step across one by one and if you're not careful and loose your footing you carve huge out chunks of your thigh. . .

five- or six-seater metal rocking horses that are okay to ride on your own, but more fun with others (I never liked being on the front of those - always thought if someone at the back rocked too hard I'd go flying over the top and land on my face)(might have been an improvement tho). . .

maybe a water fountain if you're thirsty

and if you are tired there's always a bench to sit on from which to watch everyone else having fun whilst you gather your energies again

I've been doing a little too much sitting about in the last nine months. . . and I am far removed now from my previous playground
.
I was thinking about band yesterday. . .
.
I don't really miss it, which I found odd,
perhaps because it was part of my "old life"
..
. . .I have a new one now
.
and today I was thinking about a song which we rehearsed but never put into the set list of a gig; it was a strange mix of A Town Called Malice by The Jam and You Can't Hurry Love - the first segued into the second and then it segued back again, and the most difficult thing was keeing the rhythm between the two; life is like that too - segueing from one thing to another and sometimes back again, keeping the rhythm, altho now I have no "back" to go to now - only forwards. . .
.
and as for bookbinding
.
well, the new abode is just around the corner from the local Art and Design school and I've looked at their courses and some do really really appeal - the individual aspects of some of the skills I was acquiring during my fledgling bookbinding/design/printing tuition, only not with regards to a making a book
.
some of the courses are on a Saturday which is good because I hate Saturdays; some are on weekday evenings - which might be okay, altho it means leaving the People of Varying Sizes on their own. . . which I have not been keen to do, seeing as I don't have them about all the time, but often means I am so bored of the fights and arguments that by nine o'clock I just leave them to it and "escape" to bed
.
(which is odd, eh? because I want to be with them, but they drive me nuts, and then when they are not with me I miss them terribly and wish I were with them)
.
so, new playgrounds for me, I think, is the order of the day and the courage to climb to the top of the highest slide and go down it, sit on a horse at the front, and step really really carefully over those thigh skinning timber stumps. . .
.

"a change is as good as a rest",
as my mother used to say
.
(which totally contradicted her saying:
"better the devil you know, than the devil you don't")
.
that woman has a lot to answer for
.
(won't give this up, mind. . .)(!)

15 comments:

Dave said...

Re your last comment at my place. the reply is: See my comment on your blog dated 20th April @ 13.15.

I, Like The View said...

oh. . .

that's made me a little sad. . .

*sniffs*

but, she adds, ever so bravely, I supose this means you are now talking to me again. . .

*frowns*

:-)

Dave said...

You're a little sad. How do you think I feel, walking around with a broken heart?

I, Like The View said...

dave!

how do you think I feel with your avatar being a picture of some other blonde snogging you. . .

;-)

I, Like The View said...

I dunno, I go out once in ten months. . . would you prefer it if I checked into a convent?

:-D

Anonymous said...

The question that plagues me is, what if change IS the devil you know???

Anonymous said...

"it makes me feel connected
to a reality other than my own"


Is there such a beast? I thought there was REALITY and that was that.

You know...

"All the world...blah...exits and entrances...blah, blah...something about capon...etc."

As to slides, I found that the bad part was the furnace-like heat on the metal that had been baking in the sun, waiting for unprotected calf and thigh.

"The devil you know..." is the cry of the coward. I should know, I've been a long time companion of my very own 'devil you know', you know.

Gordie said...

"better the devil you know" doesn't work with snogging, in my experience.

If you know them, and they're not nice, don't.

If they're nice... go ahead, if you want to.

If you don't know them, go ahead, if you want to.

I, Like The View said...

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm well that's interesting, thanks gordie!

shot see, I think there is more than one reality. . . just like there is often more than one truth

craig then, that's better - surely?

:-)

Gordie said...

shot - "we're all entitled to our own feelings, but no one is entitled to to their own set of facts." (Daniel Patrick Moynihan)

I, Like The View said...

(feelings) don't = (behaviour)

IMH experience

Gordie said...

Behaviour = buying her flowers.
Feelings = knowing who you want to buy flowers, and why.

Mel said...

Gee--
I missed out on too much yesterday.

<-- gonna call in sick to work so I can NOT miss out today!


k......make that a 'wanna' instead of a 'gonna'......


WANNA go play in the playground, is more like it!
Swings and slides and merry-go-rounds......and teeter-totters!

Oh.....*putting hand to forehead*
I can feel a fever comin' on.....
;-)

mig bardsley said...

Yesterday? I must go and look at yesterday. then I'll come back to today - which was actually the day before yesterday by now.
Talking about reality by the way. Of course there's only one, by definition (just going to check if there is a definition, hang on)
Well there is a definition. I think it implies that there is one reality.
But the way it is perceived is so different, by different people, that there might as well be as many realities as there are people. There's a reality which involves facts but there's also a variety of ways in which those facts are apprehended and a resulting consensus about how those facts are put together to form, er, reality.
I got lost. And I was doing so well :(

I'm going to think about reality some more.

mig bardsley said...

Oh that yesterday. right.
Reality now. I'm still sure there's just one. But it's made up of lots of apparently contradictory truths and interwoven but unrelated strings of events and related but unconnected facts and, and, and
There's a lot of it. You can't stand anywhere and point at all of it at once and say that's reality.
I think I need to play now. Myself, I'd rather not have devils. I'll have a change and a rest any day as long as no devils are involved.