End-of-an-era sort of day

THE GERIATRICS’ CORNER is quite busy today – a fair few of us have gathered to wish our friend, Gaz, a bon voyage and best wishes for his move tomorrow.

Oddly, the mood isn’t as celebratory as I might have expected – it’s got something of an end of an era feeling to it, as if we’re the parents watching the last of our kids take to wing.

Certainly, the old Corner won’t be the same with his going.

He’s been there for ten years, in all, almost part of the furniture of the place – certainly for all the time we’ve been regulars there.

PD is here, and I suspect he’s even more upset than we are – he hates change or any rearrangement of his routine – although even he accepts that Gaz, as a young man, must look to his future.

Fran and Den are here, too, and even they seem a little subdued. It’s not until Linda appears, well-tanned and refreshed from her holiday in Tenerife, that things pick up – but then Linda really is a bit of a live wire.

So, between her, and Helen, and My Good Lady and the Times crossword, the session ends in moderately cheerful spirits.

We can’t quite settle on what to do for dinner this evening – neither of us really feels like cooking, not even something quick from the freezer. We decide – almost by default – to go to our village local for some of their excellent fish and chips, washed down with a glass of Chardonnay.

By the time we get home, though, we’re both enshrouded with a cloak of weariness. We watch a little telly – University Challenge (BBC 2) – and then MGL decides to call an early night.

So, it’s been a bit of a strange day, a little melancholy, a little joyful, and at the end, a little wearying.

C’est la vie.