People I Should Say Hello To

As I walk back from dropping Oz on the bus I've started to notice the same characters out and about before 8.30. It's a kind of secret Falmouth underground of faces.

A few now smile and say hello to me. The knock on effect of this is that I now smile and say hello to some of the others. So there is a bizarre karmic smile going around. A bit like a chain letter but not so creepy.

Today I smiled at a very old man who was posting letters. He was so old and looked so interesting that I really wanted to go and sit down and have a cup of tea with him.

There's one guy who sits on a bench at the top of the hill, and he seems to be adding clues every time I see him. To start with he just sat there and I was a bit cross because I thought that I should like to sit there. Even though I won't - I was just being a pedantic arsey cow.

He sat there smoking a cigarette and admiring the view.

Then on another day I noticed that he sat there with a cup of tea.

Next, and by this time the weather was considerably colder, appeared a cup of tea and a cigarette.

One day he got out of his car with a cup of tea in hand. Thus removing any thought that he came to the bench because he lives nearby. (Although I guess it's possible he was just getting something out of his car.)

Today, he was there with cigarette, tea and a notebook.

Aha - he must be a writer, I deduce with Holmes like erudition.

Funnily enough, this didn't make me inclined to speak to him, not in the way that I really wanted to talk to the old old man. We writers are probably best left to our own devices when sitting with a view, notebook, fag and cup of tea.

But it did give me a whole idea for a book...