The past and the present

In town today, bright sun dragged me down the alley where I used to work until July. There were always interesting shapes there and today there was a watery sky too.

I got a present from a more distant bit of past last night. My partner, B, has been working abroad this week and his flight back was very delayed. B was grateful that someone else who'd been at his meeting offered him a lift in the cab he'd pre-booked to Oxford.

But the cabbie was not happy, first at having had to lose fares by hanging around at Heathrow (the cab control centre should have told him that the plane was so badly delayed but hadn't) then at being expected to take another person and do an extra drop. He asked for more money for the waiting time. But the cab control centre had said there would be no waiting charge. Impasse.

B and cabbie got talking, and it turned out that the cabbie was a refugee who remembered me helping him and some friends find work several years ago. Once the connection was established the problems vanished, and B was not only brought home without charge, but dropped off first. Cabbie got a good tip and I was very touched to know that he remembered me.