During one of the more unpleasant shenanigans which
surrounded the takeover of the college where I used to work, one of my newly
acquired colleagues decided to share her initial impression of me, "You
seem quite smug" she advised me.
After I had recovered from a fairly feral reaction at her
impertinence, I attempted to considered her remark in a more objective light.
In the course of a twenty year career in senior management, the chances
are that most forms of abuse have been hurled at you at one time or another.
And indeed, I have been accused of all kinds of unpleasant things over the
years, many no doubt deserved. No one, however, had ever accused me of smugness.
This interested me. Perhaps it was
intended as a complement, with retirement looming maybe I should have taken it on
board as a characteristic to be worked towards, an aspiration, something for
the bucket list.
Today has been one of those rare, perfect June days when
the British weather failed to
disappoint. Wall to wall blue - without mysteriously becoming pallid and muggy;
perfectly still - without a sharp sea breeze blowing in suddenly mid-afternoon
to get people huddled behind windbreaks agreeing that it had indeed been
prescient to pack a cardigan. A fellow camper passed by and commented, "I couldn't get used to
this, not a cloud in the sky." I
took this as mild irony and replied brightly, "it's like the Dordogne in
Wales!" He stared at me somewhat bemused, I don't think he'd ever heard of
the Dordogne; moreover, I realised he was being perfectly serious, he really
did consider the weather too good to be true, and a bit of a let down as there
was nothing to moan about to oil the wheels of phatic grumbling. Funny lot the
English.
But I'm proving my continental credentials here: the
weather is fabulous, the van great, the electric bikes inspired purchases,
whisking us as they did along he coast road, beside the deep blue Menai
Straights with Snowdonia in the background bathed in golden sunlight; this
evening's BBQ was yummy ( cooked up on the Cadac -another inspired purchase!);
my nearest and dearest is looking happy and relaxed ('all good', as she
says).....
I feel odd, a little peculiar, out of sorts, what can it be?
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