the north and beyond (28/1/23)

a-side

people say, oh you must be in this social media platform or that social media platform or another then another and it all becomes ever so confusing, confounding and mind-numbing, how many platforms does one need to be on, or need to be?… how thin to you want to be spread until your online presence begins to resemble roadkill having been dragged behind a lorry for 20 miles… years ago when someone mentioned platforms it was all about train stations and catching the right train, or sometimes missing the right train because you weren’t on the right platform… oops… once upon a time I was a train-spotter, yes, me, a train-spotter, and don’t knock it, there’s more to it than non-spotters think and also quite possible sparked my interest in people-watching and consequently doing a degree in anthropology many, many moons later, and quite possibly bird-watching too, the thrill of the chase and of watching a thing of beauty, which trains can be, not just in appearance but smell and history, but I digress, or have I, being not sure myself where my words are and have taken me… trains of thought, one might say, have I been shunted into sidings or am I mainlining to, as many a platform sign reads… “to the north and beyond”… also the train station I was a most-oft regular back in those heady days had a superb chocolate vendor machine for which I always kept aside a pocketful of the correct loose change, especially when I did what I called, night-shifts, all-nighters, and now you think I’m totally crazy, but why not, after all I also used to go night fishing but that’s another story for another time…..

b-side

I think a group of jackdaws should be called a congregation because every early, early morning tens of dozens of them line the roof ridge of the local church, wing to wing, queue-like, with the patience of, well, a jackdaw……

© 2023 robert greig

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