Contentment

Saturday 1st November

There are just a few times when you know you are content.  Mostly happiness is in anticipation or in retrospect, very rarely it would seem in the actual moment.  Today I sat for about an hour in the sun outside the Café de Paris with a glass (or two) of Hoegarten and watched the world go by.  And I realized that I was contented.  Nothing to do, no worries, no nasty thoughts, no e-mails, phone on flight mode, the occasional car, a passer-by to nod to, and the sun so warm on my face – it was heaven.  All the money in the world cannot buy that moment of sheer contentment.

And today by the time you read this we will be gone, back on the road to Calais I am afraid.  But as I have to remind myself, it is just a short little break before we are back and in just five months I will be retired and can sit for many more moments at complete contentment with the world.