How about that

More painting today. We were busy with the lounge today, getting on the undercoat and the first coat of "Soul" - a light coffee colour, much easier on the eyes. Although I would not have purposely planned to host dinner guests after a day of labour and to a house under construction, it came about in a sort of muddly way that we had Simon and Deborah Bruce and their brood around to tea. I was so glad that we went ahead and confirmed the tentative arrangement instead of putting it off again as we had an excellent evening. While the kids were watching a DVD on the Mac, Simon shared an incredible story with us which I simply have to tell about - he told it in church, apparently. It happened thus: One day he was in the supermarket with his youngest son, Daniel. As he entered one aisle, he walked past a woman who looked vaguely familiar, who thought similarly about him as they made eye contact but then passed each other by. On the second passing in the next aisle they stared hard at one another, and by the third aisle Simon spoke up, asking if he knew her. She said no, but she had lost a son in the war who looked very much like him, who had also had a young son before he went off. Simon was much moved by her loss and offered his help in any way, as one does in these situations. They talked a short while longer and then parted. She went off to pay for her purchases; he was not long behind and ended up two behind her in the checkout queue. One final goodbye took her outside and him up to the cashier, who rang up his purchases and told him an amount which was much more than he was expecting to pay. Simon queried the figure; the cashier told him that his mother, the lady who had just been there, said to ring it up under his, Simon's, bill. How about that - one can't believe this would happen. Anyway, he could still see her out the window, so hurried to pay the full amount and then try catch up with her. She started rushing to her car, nervously looking over her shoulder; he ran faster; she got her shopping stowed in the boot and was just getting into the car when Simon reached her. She was just about to close the door when he managed to get his foot in the way, and then sort of grabbed her leg and gave it a pull..."much like I'm doing with you now," says he. The End.