Cityscape

It's funny.
Most people take a trip to the country to recharge their batteries and relax.
For me it is just the opposite. I go to the city to reconnect with the mass of people and lose myself among them. For a few hours or a couple of days, the colour, bustle and purposeful busyness of the city is so invigorating.

My hilltop is beautiful, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but at times I itch to be an anonymous member of a crowd. This feeling has been particularly strong lately given the last couple of months of snow-related semi-isolation.

So I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.
I went to Liverpool to visit my friends Tony and Delia and to see their new house. Tony worked with R several years ago and the friendship continued after we left the north-west - to the extent that I asked him to give one of the eulogies at R's funeral.

They are both great talkers and listeners.
After the usual catch-up conversations and sharing of plans for the future, we got to talking about R. With them it was so easy and natural. There was none of the formal "And now shall we talk about the dead person?" business - R was woven in and out of the conversation as though he were still with us. It was relaxing and normal, and for once it didn't make me cry.

Going out for a beer and a curry on Saturday evening was another welcome treat for me. At home, the round-trip involved in buying a takeaway means that it is not something I ever do. It all felt very decadent!

Sunday morning saw us taking a pre-brunch walk along Otterspool promenade in the crisp morning air. Despite the sunshine, we had to keep moving to keep warm, but the bright light glinting off the Mersey and the massed daffodils on the verge of flowering made it very worth the brisk walking pace required.

Moose and his friend Leo enjoyed the park as well!

In the afternoon, we took a trip up the Radio City Tower. This was something Tony and R had intended to do on the visit that should have taken place a few weeks after he died. It seemed appropriate to do it today.

Over 450 feet high, the Beacon as it is also known gave us a fantastic view over a city that I don't know very well. From the Liver Building to the two cathedrals and back over to Everton Heights, taking in the wealth of fine Georgian buildings in the city centre, it appeared much more grandiose from our vantage point than it ever does at ground level.

Tony joked that we could see my house from up there. Who knows? Had the Snowdonia mountain range not been in the way, he may have been right!

I have two more trips away planned this month.

From the viewpoint of getting things done around the homestead, this is a very bad idea; it would be far more sensible to stay at home and do some much-needed work. I am hoping though that, after a month of decadence I will come back and get going again with renewed vigour. The garden can wait that long, and nothing else seems to be doing the trick as far as generating enthusiasm is concerned.

I really hope this works.