Thursday 14th Nov

I ended up today sat in a Wetherspoons pub at about 11am in the morning. Now I know initially that sounds like an outrageous thing to do, especially on a Thursday but there was a reason. I had to take my car for some attention and for some strange reason there are a lot of car-type people over in Redfield, Bristol.

I had about an hour and a half to kill so proceeded to the nearest establishment that did an all-day breakfast, which by the way didn't have any bacon so I had to go for an extra sausage... which in my mind spoils the balance of a breakfast (not that it really made much difference as pretty much everything bar the toast seemed to be deep fried).

Anyhoos, as I looked around at my fellow patrons. There seemed to be quite a mix of people - (for future reference it opens at 9am) some mothers with kids, a couple in their forties (whom I had one of my brief random conversations with) and quite a number of older folk, most of which were nursing pints of various kinds.

The women behind the bar wasn't the younger pretty student types that you'd normally expect in other parts of the city but an older, fuller lady. I ordered my all-day breakfast with a mug of tea (which came with a little biscuit and three packs of sugar - perhaps that is the standard) and a pint of coke and then proceeded to a window seat in the corner.

The place had a strange atmosphere - it was more of a local cafe feel than some sort chain-pub. And the more I thought about it the more I saw sign signs that. The barlady knew people by name and patrons greeted each other not as strangers or passerbys but as people within the same community.

Community happens in spite of ourselves. We may think that we are 'rocks' or 'islands' but the reality of it all is that people are are the same. We all want to know and be known, we all worry about our friends and family, we all would probably want to be able to leave our front doors open but are all probably scared of the same things.

It is within the very nature of people to want to be with people...