BROLLY

One of the best things I ever bought was the sun brolly I picked up for a tenner more than half a dozen years ago in a supermarket near to where I used to work...

Naturally, the next day, I did have to go back to that same supermarket and buy a base for it, once I found out that it didn't have a spike on the end, but, even so, for a total of twenty quid combined, it still turned out to be a bit of a bargain.

Okay it could be better than it is...

It might, for example, be a lot more useful if I could tilt it instead of having to keep moving it so that I can follow the shade around, and the screw thread that separates the two pieces of the pole has started to become difficult to get working. So much so, in fact, that the wood has now separated from the metal and its all a little bit more fragile and prone towards blowing away in the wind than it once was, although, if the breeze gets too vigorous, I've always tended to take it back indoors anyway... along with myself.

My "outdoors-y-ness" does rather depend upon an ideal set of circumstances being in place after all... The correct amount of warmth; The right level of sunshine; A very precise level of noise; A limited number of people being around and about; A good book; A decent game on the radio; And the breeze being "just so..."

Granted, because of such rigid criteria, my brolly hasn't exactly been over-used during the intervening years, but when the weather's good enough to drag it outside, and being very careful not to swing it about too much and knock anything and everything inside the house off its perch, it's an absolute godsend.

On a sunny day, when the sun's beating down, it just provides a little piece of sanctuary from its blinding glare, and I can find myself a tiny spot of civilisation in which to read my book in the great outdoors...

I have never been brave enough to leave it outside, assuming that such an obviously useful object would be too much of a temptation for any passing tea leaf. Instead, I pack it away and lug all of its constituent parts back inside and find myself hoping for the next time when the correct confluence of circumstances will drag me outside into the shade again.