"My body is a Pom Bear temple"

 Here's a thought I had this week; happiness is not a feeling. It runs deeper than that. It is not some fleeting moment in our life, subject to change and changing circumstance. It remains, we remain that way, even when something goes badly, when we are a little fed up, tired, or put out. Not that I've experienced much of that this week. 

There has been a lot to take in, lots of information to remember, but non of it particularly difficult. Although....I did somehow manage to enter into the till that a guest had handed over fifty thousand pounds for a bottle of wine and a J20. A couple of the many things that strikes me about this place is the laughter and light hearted conversation. It's contagious, and it makes for such a wonderfully warm environment. It also makes cleaning toilets an enjoyable task. I never imagined I'd ever say that, I never imagined lots of things before I came here. It stretches the mind by cleansing the mind, getting rid of the unnecessary, and allowing your thoughts to wander without the hindrance of expectation. There is also what could probably be best described as a healthy dose of madness about the place. Rachel has declared her body to be a Pom Bear temple, and she wondered what High Viz granary bread was. To be fair, the extractor fan (renamed the distracter fan) in the kitchen is pretty noisy, so it's easy to mishear. But there are plenty of things that can't be so easily explained away. The fact, for example, that we have allocated an imaginary Chris de Burgh a cupboard to live in (and that we stick our head around the door every now and then to say hello). 

I was working over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, but actually, there was something rather lovely about that. With it also being the school holidays, we have had quite a number of families staying. One group in particular, not just immediate family, but also cousins and uncles and grandparents, really made an impression on me. As we are a hostel without a TV room, phone signal, or wifi, everyone would sit around together in an evening, chatting, laughing, playing cards. I overheard bits of a conversation about the edge of clouds, and whether of not rainbows really exist. They all seemed to have had a wonderful time. 

We have been blessed with a couple of days of gorgeous weather. I went for a walk around Wastwater, & got a slight twang of hostel envy when I saw YHA Wasdale Hall with its views over the lake. I told Rachel about this later, but she said it's really dark there. The staff accommodation is at the back, and they don't get light until Monday (I misheard this bit. They only have to wait until midday). We then had a long conversation about the similarities between Tom Conti's moustache and Chris de Burgh's eyebrows. Thoughts of Wasdale Hall evaporated from my mind. Today (Thursday), I met up with some dear friends from Switzerland in Skelwith Bridge. I can't quite explain how wonderful it was to see them, and we spent an afternoon walking along the river, & having a much talked-up game of pooh sticks. I must admit that it felt a little strange at first seeing them, if only because that part of my life seems a world away now. Or at least, I feel completely different in myself about the whole thing, and the emotions and thoughts I left there with no longer have any importance in my mind. There is far too much else that I'd rather think about. But that is not to say I have forgotten my friends from there. They were always the best bit.