Doesn't it Just Feel Good ... ?

... when things come together?  I have to say that, in my experience, it's rare that lots of 'stuff' goes right all at once without there being something big and festering in the middle to sour the whole shebang.  Looking back through the past week, since I wrote about old age, funerals and lovers not returning from war, I have to say that this has been one of those rare occasions ... and I'll try to summarise why.

It had occurred to me earlier that, by the final week in September, I ought to have received a new lease for my flat, but so far it hadn't arrived.  Not wishing to be turned out onto the street (although, I'm sure, it wouldn't have come to that), I was getting a bit anxious.  On Saturday, it arrived in a Royal Mail 'damaged post' package.  Deciding not to trust the post with its return, I walked into the agent's office with it that morning and was assured that all was well.

That afternoon, I watched my favourite football team start its adventure in the FA Vase competition.  After taking a 2-0 lead, they left fans a bit worried as they were set back as far as 2-3 before finally winning their qualifying tie 5-3 to progress to the First Round Proper in three weeks' time.

Replica Hawker Hurricane
fighter at Wimpole Hall

Sunday afternoon found me in a long queue of traffic.  Usually I find this a stressful situation, being unable to do anything to forward my cause.  This time, however, with no pressures and the sunshine around me, I was nicely relaxed as I inched ever closer to the car park at a local attraction, Wimpole Hall, where a World War II themed event was in progress.  It may be that my demeanour was helped by events earlier in the day.  I'd had a brief encounter that morning with someone whom I feared I had offended, but I'd been reassured that this wasn't the case and so was, in a sense, 'floating on air' as a result.  We met up later in the week and enjoyed a relaxed and wide-ranging conversation over a drink.

On Wednesday morning I had the opportunity to erase another blot on my escutcheon.  Some months ago, I had been invited to a coffee morning that had had to be rearranged at fairly short notice.  I failed to change my diary, though, and didn't turn up.  I'd been instantly forgiven, of course, but still felt uneasy about it.  This week another such gathering had been arranged, and I was able to redeem myself.  As well as the coffee and chatter, I had the privilege of briefly holding my host's baby daughter on my lap; it was the first time since Christmas time about thirteen years ago that I had enjoyed such an experience.  The older one gets, the rarer - and therefore more significant - such events become.

I wrote here a few weeks ago about prowling the streets with a notebook in connection with the planned distribution of church Christmas cards.  Another project recently came my way, that has had the same consequences.  I've once more been seen making surreptitious notes, this time about the industrial areas of our town.  Thanks to the welcome fine weather, this project, too, is nearing completion and, although this won't stop me walking, it will remove the obligation to do so, and the restrictions on my choice of routes.

And finally, a good experience to which I can't put a date and time, which may sound strange.  A couple of weeks ago, I 'attended' (if that's the right word) a webinar - an internet-based lecture or conference - for which I had to download a small program to enable the transmission to be received.  In the event, I don't think it was very helpful, and shan't need the program again.  However, the downloaded file was still sitting on my computer.  Try as I would, I couldn't delete it because - although I own the computer and am the only one who uses it - I didn't have 'administrator privileges'.  I tried to move it to another location, so I didn't have to keep seeing it there: this needed authority I didn't possess.  I employed the indirect strategy of re-naming the file so it no longer looked like a program: this could only be done by an administrator!  Annoyed, I gave up and resolved one day to seek my son's help (he had set the computer up for me when I bought it).  Yesterday, having done nothing further about it, I noticed that the offending item had vanished!  Grateful, I didn't go hunting for it, but I do wonder how, where, when ...?

Today is 'Old Michaelmas' day; the fine weather continues and, although there is no longer golden corn to wave fairly in the summer breeze, this is our church's Harvest Festival weekend.  More blessings for which to be grateful.