Riches on two legs

It’s been a bit of a frustrating year, financially. I’m owed a good deal of money by HM Government, but it’s been a difficult job actually prising it out of them, and I’m not there yet. But this month has been full of riches of another kind. Last weekend I had a family to stay: the mother I know from sitting on a committee with her, but the rest I’d not met – Dad, looking rather like Terry Pratchett and a most delightful, peaceful man, and the two adopted children, both now in their 20’s and both with Down’s syndrome – and a nicer pair would be hard to find. Michaela (not her real name, I wouldn’t want to embarrass her!) was a real sweetie, and we got on like a house on fire: and Alan (ditto), more seriously affected but nevertheless a young man who was enjoyable to be with. They were all stopping over while they went to a wedding up in Northumberland.

It wasn’t a long visit; they arrived for lunch (salad) on the day of the wedding, an hour later than scheduled because of holiday traffic, changed and went off to the wedding, and came home at 11 pm having all had a great time. The next day we all trooped off to the Quaker Meeting and on the way home, in spite of drizzle, walked over the Millenium Bridge and had a quick look round the Sage, the wonderful pair of concert halls in Gateshead, before coming home to lunch (salad again) and then departing for a further visit to friends of theirs down in Teesdale. They were very appreciative of the quick look at the delights of Newcastle, and I’m hoping that one day before too long they’ll all come again and we’ll be able to do more sightseeing and get out into the glorious country I have on the doorstep.

And then later in the week I had a friend visit, by arrangement, to tell me about putting on a one-woman show which she’s doing later this year. I’m hoping to write this up for a magazine article, to promote both my writing and her show. When you talk about this kind of thing, you necessarily get into quite deep matters: I needed to know how she’d got into theatre in the first place, which in turn meant something of the story of her life. Then that same evening, I had near neighbours round for a meal: I’d run into D. on the metro platform as I was coming home (a sliver of ‘green’ there, no car to town for me!) and put into action a thought I’d had for some time to ask them round. It was a fascinating evening: they had spent some time living in Ethiopia, at the time of the revolution, and had some amazing tales to tell.

Then today I heard that the people who had been going to come last Monday and hadn’t been able to because their son had flu were going to call in on their way home, next Friday. They’ve been cat-sitting, and when my friend told me the name of the person for whom they were sitting I realised I knew her and had worked on a committee with her this last year! So it's going to be lovely to see all this family too.

All this activity has made me reflect that although money has been a bit in short supply, riches have not: my riches walk around on two legs. The only thing of which I’m constantly aware is that so often, green choices cost more and I’ve just not been able to afford to be green. Sometimes this is more in cash, sometimes it’s more in time: I have to go to Brussels next month, and to go on Eurostar would take me the best part of three days, whereas I can fly over in the morning and back in the evening. There’s a dilemma: but I think the answer is going to be to take the plane (it will, after all, go anyway). One of these days we’ll get our through trains from Newcastle to Brussels: but too late for me!