Some Chilean men got in my taxi last night and told me that truly I had been touched by the kindly hand of the Gods.
They wondered if I knew just how astonishingly good my lot in life had turned out to be.
I was living, they reminded me, in the most beautiful part of the most beautiful country in the world, and that the people around me were polite and well-fed and clean and happy.
They remarked how beautifully organised and ordered our world is, how everybody drives courteously and sensibly and waves politely to thank drivers who let them out at junctions.
They wondered if I had realised just how wealthy everybody was. One of them said sadly that people here might think we have poverty, but we don’t, not true poverty: and after a moment’s reflection I agreed, we are a land of great wealth
They marvelled at how tidy and well kept everything was. They admired the gentle climate, unravaged by baking heat or savage winters.
When they got out they both hugged me solemnly and wished me joy in my perfect life, and I wished them joy in theirs and drove off feeling remarkably fortunate and happy.
I thought perhaps they had been visiting angels.
Sunshine helps, of course, and the weather has been fine all weekend, not exactly warm, although I have found that one jumper is enough, which is pleasing: but it has been bright and abundant with Vitamin D.
I went swimming this evening as well, which was a gloriously cheering experience. We haven’t been for weeks and weeks, and although Mark seems to be managing, probably because joinery has got more exercise in it than sewing, I have been feeling unseasonably gloomy and dispirited.
It was wonderful to have some quiet time this evening and to make a return to the hallowed corridors of the PamperMe Beautiful HolisticWellness Health Spa, where I ploughed doggedly up and down the swimming pool for half an hour, puffing and blowing and guiltily aware of having become an idle mound of excess blubber in the weeks since my last attendance.
I heated the sauna up until my eyes were scorching and then dived into the ice room, which completely took the remains of my breath away. I collapsed back into the swimming pool with my heart pounding like the drums at a Status Quo concert, and actually almost fell asleep in the water as everything slowly subsided back to normal. This is the most terrific buzz, and I have still got some leftover endorphins wallowing contentedly around my brain even now.
Just a final note to go with the picture at the top: when we got up this morning I asked the children to take some photographs of the puppies.
We need to have pictures of them to email to people who think they might like a puppy. I have been meaning to do it for ages, but of course the whole caboodle goes off to the farm with Mark every day, and so whenever I have got a few minutes spare they are almost always out. I am trying not to think how ridiculous it is to have to lug a massive box of ten dogs around with you everywhere you go, but he has got to do it because his dog mopes terribly if he goes off without her.
This morning we were all in together, and before they all disappeared the children picked them up one by one and took pictures of them.
They had better not be considering a career in marketing.
The picture of the stupid-looking puppy at the top of the page was the best of an absolutely rubbish collection of blurry snaps of wriggling puppies, who mostly disappearing into the distance.
How you can possibly make a box full of puppies look so unappealing I have got no idea, unfortunately by the time I actually looked at the pictures it was too late and the puppies had gone, I am going to have to have another go tomorrow.
Ah well.
