Not me, obviously. I'm 5'4" which is
tall enough for most purposes, and the only claim I'm going to make about my
appearance is that I'm not scarily ugly. No, I'm referring to life
itself. It's a bit of a cliché, I suppose, but it struck me forcibly last
weekend when we went to visit friends - one in hospital, one in a care home,
and both about my age.
Some things - or people - are worth making a
sacrifice for, but I'm no longer willing to risk my health or sanity for no
good reason. And while compromise is sometimes sensible or polite, there
are some things that bring so much pleasure that I'm not prepared to do without
them. Here's the start of my list, of things that life is too short for:
Inferior toilet paper.
You only get one body, so treat it kindly. The soft stuff costs a little
bit more, but you use it every day. Why start the morning being
irritated?
Nasty tea. We had a delicious breakfast at
the pub we stayed in at the weekend and, when the plump, creamy teapot was brought
forth, I eagerly anticipated a reviving brew. Imagine my distress, on
taking a large gulp of Lady Grey. Alright, so it's a lot better than Earl
Grey, but what isn't? Now, I didn't want to upset the chef, who seemed a
decent young man, and I was rather thirsty. Clearly this was one of those
occasions when compromise was called for so, rather than spitting it out and
calling for a large mug of the fine beverage of which the knitted monkey speaks
so highly in the advertisements, I drank it up uncomplaining.
Worrying about what you can't change.
On the evening before the breakfast, we'd been late back and missed
dinner. We had hoped to find somewhere to eat on the way, but we were in
a rather remote area, and couldn't find anywhere still serving food at
9pm. We ended up going back to the pub, where I had half a pint of
bitter, a packet of crisps and a Crunchie bar. My beloved, who can't mix
sweet and savoury without having a sneezing fit, had a pint of bitter and two
packets of peanuts. It was fine. We were warm, comfortable, and a lot
healthier than our friends. Besides, we knew we were going to get a good
breakfast the next morning, with a lovely cup of tea......
