“Winters came, the snow has fell, wee Josies nose is froze as well…” (Glasgow childrens rhyme).
“The Starks are always right eventually” (Maester Aemon of the Nightswatch.)
Maybe with age, my blood just got a bit thinner, but strewth is it cold?
As we set off arm in arm to the shops, it always seems a little awkward.
Not, I quickly stress, any emotional awkwardness, I am ever happy to be seen out with the lovely Chris, and, I am assured – provided I am not wearing anything too old, or crumpled (virtually my entire favourite wardrobe), and my eyebrows have been sufficiently trimmed – she is happy to be seen with me.
For a long time I have blamed our apparent tendency to walk out out of step. (MY apparent tendency to walk out of step – sorry). More recently, I concluded that my naturally lumbering gait -excerbated somewhat by my twisted eye view, has simply made me a clumsy walking companion.
However the increased need to proffer support in these icy conditions (and I note, with some admiration for my wife, that there are many who would consider that taking my arm on a slippy surface might increase the risk of injury…) has shown me that our combined progression suffers from a more fundamental difficuly.
Chris, by no means tiny, but endlessly polite, pauses, gives way, yields…whilst I, looming large(r than life?), blunder forwards, anticipating that crowds will part, way will be given, that my simple visibility will be sufficient to clear a path. The pedestrian equivalent of a supertanker – with a big turning circle and a long stopping distance, as against the nippy manouverability of my wife.
In short, I move when she pauses, then advance when she dodges. it’s a wonder that we get anywhere.
All this is true on balmy summers days, with unrestricted vision, movement and hearing. In the current clime where we are swathed against the cold, with hats, hoods, fogged up glasses, and communication is frequently muffled, it is likely only a matter of time before I storm off inadvertantly with the wrong wife.
Maybe it’s just as well to hang tightly on to the one I’ve got, whatever the risks.
Next week on IaDL : “Did you fall badly on the ice?” ” No, Tony fell badly on me….”
Dalmallyfest the Asylum 