Really Urban

It's more than a little 'Burbesque' here at the big house. No that's not a typo and I didn't mean burlesque and pole dancing and the like, I mean typical of life in the burbs. Everyone knows each other and there is the constant exchange of gossip and the old, 'Wink wink nudge nudge say no more' is the stuff of raised eyebrows and knowing glances and pointing fingers. The morning stroll to the village shops for coffee is quite the social time.

There's the girls in the park running their lovely dogs, or more honestly there's more walking and trudging going on than running and often there are exchanges of a very personal nature. Good fortune of Lotto wins and the sadness of family members' demise are spilled and discussed. The sunshine seems to encourage this familiarity between otherwise strangers.

And then we are over to the cafe for a natter and a sit down. There are dog biscuits courtesy of the kind lady in the Newsagency who sadly lost her own 'best friend' very recently, and if Dog is very lucky there is a pile of left over bacon and sausages carefully scarped off the plates. She does go looking for her orange plastic plate, and this morning put on quite a display as she caught her titbits as Stevie pitched 'em into the air. The regulars were happy with the silly entertainment.

There are a gaggle of folk who pop in every day or every other day and we smile and nod. It's a calm comfortable, quiet place where the coffee is excellent, and the changing parade of people, predictable.

But today, URBAN reared it's obvious and interesting head. As we walked home we noticed an unmoving LEG stuck out on one of the concrete and paved areas.

I looked and wondered if CSI was needed.

It didn't move.

I went over and stopped a ways away. It was not just a leg, it was the whole of a body, lying face down. I couldn't tell if there was any breathing going on. I looked for quite a while and the stillness worried me, a lot!

I bent closer and could still not see any movement.

Then I called out, 'Hey mate are you ok?'

Nothing.

Then like a cartoon coming to life the fella rolled over. He got a bit of a shock, I got a bit of a shock. He looked up at me with a crooked toothless smile, rolled over onto his back and said,'I'm just having a sleep in the sunshine out of the wind.'

I apologised for interrupting him and then left him to it.

From time to time there is a homeless fella in the park. He pushes his trolley with all his worldly possessions and makes a little bed out of one of the benches. He doesn't do any harm and we exchange hellos. When it's been raining and his gear is more than a little damp he moves into the rotunda and hangs it out trying to dry it up before packing it back into his trolley. Then he moves on somewhere else. He seems happy enough.

I mention these fellas only because they remind me of URBAN life.

And today when we got back from doing a few silly 'messages' to use my Nanna's old expression, there was this walloping barge thing parked up in the canal.

I am hoping that it manages to go undamaged over the weekend cos it's the weekends when we become the urban terminus for the kids in their zupped up speeding dinghies.

I do like it when we are more urban than suburban.