Fire and Water ...
It's still way too early for me to be spending
time on such thoughts, as I am a very long way from accumulating the
necessary resources for it, but I do spend time now and then thinking
about the kind of house I would like to have when I can finally
afford to leave this rented concrete box I live in. Of one thing
though, I am sure - it will have a fireplace. A cozy warm room with a
fireplace. A comfortable room for good conversation with friends
...
And speaking about conversation with friends
reminds me that Terry visited us last weekend. I've written before
about these visits; about our 'habit' of talking together until late
at night (early morning, usually ...). It's so seldom that I see him
these days, there is always a backlog of things to talk about. But
after each of these visits, when he returns to work on the Monday
with no more than a couple of hours sleep behind him, he is
unfortunately not very productive ... (His imitation of a young
Japanese salaryman is perhaps too exact!)
Because we are both aware of this problem, when he
came over this time, we sort of agreed to try and avoid falling into
that 'routine'. We were of course enjoying our 'discourse', but when
it started to get near midnight, I pulled his bedding out of the
closet and laid it down for him in our 'guest room' (my workshop!),
continuing our conversation while I did so. He took the hint, and
started to get his things together for the night. It looked as though
we might manage to get to bed at a reasonable hour, and save him some
working time on Monday ...
I got my own bedding out, and set it down in my
daughter's room, in a space they had left for me when they had gone
to bed some hours earlier. On a shelf in that room though, sits our
fish tank. It's not a big aquarium, but one of those fashionable new
small 'desktop' models. Inside it, usually hiding themselves well
among the grass and stones, swim half a dozen small fish, 'Neon
Tetras'. The room was completely dark; the tank still brightly
illuminated. The air bubbling up through the clear water, the gentle
swaying of the green plants, the occasional flash of colour as one of
the fish twisted or turned ... Was this really a fish tank? It seemed
as though we were rather sitting in front of a fireplace ... glowing,
mysterious flickering motion in a darkened room ...
We sat on the soft bedding, with my two girls
sleeping peacefully beside us, staring into the mesmerizing light,
and there was just no way to end our conversation. A few hours later,
there we were, still at it. We had done it again. Terry would once
more be paying the price come Monday morning ...
So I've been rethinking my idea about having a
fireplace in my future home. Perhaps after this recent experience
with Terry, I should be considering an aquarium instead. But would it
have quite the same warmth on winter nights ...?