Today – a Saturday – was a miscellany of events, a jumble of unfolding episodes.  When we awoke this morning to cool, dull skies we hadn’t an agenda planned and would likely have been just as happy to have remained so.  This was not however to be.  In typical fashion, the incremental progress of time wasn’t long in dislodging our lassitude and replacing it with something approaching vigour, at least the proverbial necessity which characteristically prompts invention.  Specifically we were in need of some household provisions.  Our innate sense of responsibility moved us to contemplate action.

I had in the meantime emailed an acquaintance and invited her to share a coffee and a natter later in the afternoon so the two tentative plans potentially collided unless we got ourselves into gear before too long.  This added incentive provoked moderate urgency to the morning duties and by 10:00 o’clock we were fed and cleansed and on the road to the City.  Along the way we complicated our erstwhile unobstructed day by determining to lunch at one of our favourite Vietnamese restaurants.  I suddenly had a yearning for steamed mussels in a spicy currie sauce and a spring roll.  This transition would naturally follow the completion of our provisional task and a subsequent visit with my elderly mother.

These seeming inconsequential obligations nonetheless exact time.  Naturally we punctuated the tour with a diversion to the local car wash, a chore which attracted more significance as the clouds began to break and the sun appeared amongst them against a background of blue.  While at my mother’s place, and before we stopped for lunch, it occurred to me that we might usefully collect my sister and her husband who were due to land at the airport around 3:30 p.m.  This of course obliged me to verify whether my acquaintance intended to accept my invitation for afternoon coffee.  A quick telephone call to her confirmed not so we hardened our airport plans accordingly.

Happily for all concerned the airport reunion went off without a hitch and we were on our way home by 4:30 p.m.  The remainder of the day has whizzed by with the usual Saturday evening exigencies, appetizers, drinks and dinner. The faint strains of jazz music is all that remains.  We’ll now do our best to catch a few moments of a film on Netflix, but then it’s to bed!  The day will soon close.