Shiny happy people

Yesterday I had lunch at a garden centre cafe and I said that in a few years,when I've completed my transformation into my mother, I'm gonna work in one myself.  A garden centre, not a cafe although that is fun too.  There must be downsides, but imagine going into your workplace every day, surrounded by beautiful leaves and flowers, delighting your nose with wintersweet and daphne to baby tomato plants and basil.  My shoulders go down just thinking about it.  But you know who else is pretty cool?  Meter readers.  Ours just came, thumped up the steps in her red bands and stubbies (I know this is the winterless north.  But stubbies in the winter?  Just wow as Dan would say) and spent the next five minutes tickling my dog, the Welsh terrier from next door and the Alsatian from across the road into ecstasy.  When we lived in Auckland the meter reader wouldn't get out of his car unless he could see Oli tied up.  I love dogs, I like my gumboots.  I reckon I could be a meter reader in the country.

On another note, at the cafe I saw my old accountant.  He worked for the University for 20 odd years and was great at his job - more than once I had my bacon saved by his financial wizardry and comprehensive knowledge of pretty much every piece of arcane finance/contract/employment policy since 1987.  On top of this, he was a lovely man, mad about his wife, in love with his sons, their families and happy with what life had given him.  But you know, he was still an accountant.  The plant in his office flowered for like one week in the year and it was a pretty exciting day when he broke out and wore a black shirt.  But yesterday, oh yesterday.  He looked like a tramp, crazy beanie that not even I would wear, daggy stained trackies, socks and flip flops and when he went to leave the cafe staff did that quick ''did he pay" check with each other and he shrugged into the most disreputable wind breaker ever, my Uncle Lunki had one like it in 1976.   I'm so happy that his retirement dream of gardening all day has come true.  There's hope for all of us.