I have been drowning in work all year this year – I feel guilty every day for doing this instead of doing more work but I need some sort of release from the pressure and weirdly or otherwise this is how I find that release.

Every now and again, I have a small moment of rebellion and today I’ve had just one such moment. I was at a meeting this morning with a bunch of clients (a really nice crowd that I love working with) and had offered to take them for lunch so my colleagues in my office weren’t expecting me back immediately. The client cancelled the lunch appointment because the meeting finished promptly and so he could catch an earlier flight back to his home country if he blew out our lunch agreement.

So, instead of dashing back to the office, I popped home and had lunch with DM. What a treat. It was only beans on toast but at least it was beans on toast in my own home, with my dogs by my side and DM sitting on the other sofa smiling at me. It was bliss.

On my way out again, I saw an elderly neighbour walking down the road so I stopped and offered her a lift. Other than my immediate neighbours on one side of us, she’s the only person in the street whose name I know. She was a ‘war bride’ and married a Polish Pilot who came over here in the Second World War to fly for the RAF. They met, fell in love and married. They had lived in a house opposite me since the house was built in the 1950s. Her husband died a few years ago, leaving my neighbour alone (their only son lives in the USA) and she seems to ‘keep busy’ as a way of staving off the crippling loneliness of being widowed and with no other close-by relatives. Every time I see her she’s doing something. Today she was walking to Camberley (the nearest sizeable town to us) for a bit of shopping.

She reminded me that I’d planned to do a pic for my ‘Capturing Songs’ gallery of Squeeze’s Labelled with Love – I love its pathos – it oozes it from every note. (BTW don’t think for a moment Vi is like the woman in the song – she’s as lonely but she isn’t an alcoholic.)

So, I set out tonight to do the pic – a reflection on loneliness and a comment on life.

You will see there are old photos – one is of my Nan on the day she married ‘Pop’, my Mum’s stepfather. Pop died probably thirty years ago now but he was a lovely soul. The black and white photo is me in younger, better looking times!!!

As I sit and type this, a message has popped into my email box from a friend met through Pbase, Teresa. It’s such a lovely message, one which I will treasure for ever. Thank you my friend. That reminds me of why I do this for a stress reliever – it has worked for me again tonight.