Christmas Run

We thought we'd use Christmas Morning to hook up with Michael G and go a run round the beach. It was freezing and the wind was really strong. At Aberlady there were other runners - I should know who they are but I don't - they knew lots of people I know. I stood drinking the coffee I'd hidden in the undergrowth and eating some broken short-cake and trying not to eat Michael's chocolate orange as I waited on Peter and Michael arriving from the direction of the dunes.

I had been much slower than usual from North Berwick to Aberlady and was hoping this would leave me nice and fresh for the run back down the beach with the wind behind. 'Fresh' wasn't the word though. Some days you just don't have it.

It's probably a year since I last ran with Michael so the contrast was great. Things had changed for both of us.

He was heading down towards the Borders later on. We were heading down to Peter's brother's house. We were way late and they had, sensibly, already started eating when we arrived at about 20 past four.
You know the rest - food - and more drink by far than I would usually drink these days. Not much by anyone else's standards. The women were talking about wedding planning and the boys were watching base jumping and men in wing suits on the telly. Somehow I was more at home with the men. I tried to understand the attraction of the ring, but it couldn't do magic - it cost how much? No, I really didn't get it. I didn't have a hankering to have a go in a wing-suit either, although I can see the attraction.

Part of the fun for me of being at Peter's brother's house is observing the spooky similarities between Peter and his brother Neil. I brought up the subject of picture frames, which we had touched on before. Peter will buy any amount of picture frames and if we go near IKEA he comes back with armfuls. But then they go in drawers. They're not for anything. I mentioned this to Sue, Neil's wife, and she offered to show me Neil's cupboard full of picture frames. I wanted to get at just what in the hell it means to want picture frames.
"Well, it's just the POTENTIAL" explained Neil, looking at Peter, who seemed to know what he was talking about. I didn't get anywhere. Neither of them are interested in analysing themselves. They just want picture frames full of potential.

I asked Neil if he collected bits of wood. His eyes took on a dreamy quality but he didn't answer. I wondered if he had a wood stash somewhere that Sue didn't know about.
At the end of the night we went to collect our coats and spoke to the rabbit for a little while. I wished I'd remembered her and come to see her earlier. She's sat the whole night in her cage with her huge eyes in the back room with the coats.

Today Peter's away on Graham Henry's infamous boxing day run in the Pentlands. I was considering going until  yesterday's run, when I thought better of it. It looks like a nice day though. I'm off to do something more modest.
Tomorrow I'll be back at work.