Is anything ever free?

 

We have heard of ‘swan upping’ but it seems that swans have been ‘downing’ in the last few years. Every year the King’s swans are counted on the Thames and this year there is good news, the numbers are beginning to increase again.

“Be careful,” shouted my companion, when I was leaning over trying to take a photograph of cygnets with the mother swan. Suddenly there was a powerful thrashing of wings in the water; the male was coming to defend his family.

“They can break your arm you know.”

This is not true, although I have heard the myth several times. Swans’ bones are too light to break our arms. It is best to keep away though as they will attack to take care of their young ones.

This week we went into a café that was taking care of the old as well. We were standing in the queue when a person in front of us told us that an older person can have a piece of free cake with their meal. We asked and not only did we get a free piece of cake but also a box to take it home in.

“I get one for my husband,” said our companion in the queue, “and he isn’t even here”.

I am not sure I would do that, but I appreciate the café giving all of us that lovely sponge. I have one niggle though and it is that no one challenged my age. It would be good for my morale if someone had said, “You don’t look old enough for free cake”.

One of the disadvantages of getting old is that we often need to wear glasses. My guest was dismayed and worried to discover that he had lost the screw attaching the arm of his spectacles to the main frame. No amount of searching was fruitful. We tried everything from all of us doing a thorough visual check to using our fingertips searching in the carpet pile, to no avail. What could we do? He was on holiday away from his own optician. We tried threading cotton through, but it broke. We tried a piece of thin wire, but it was not thin enough. Fuse wire would be good, but we must have left it at our old house and we have not replenished our stocks. In the end we went to a local optician in the High Street who was only too pleased to help. That is two lots of luck in one week.

My friends came from Yorkshire where there is a hosepipe ban. I think how fortunate we are to be able to water our garden freely. So far, so lucky.

(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)

Free cake