Flawless

Funny - truly, the only word for it - how time unfolds, how events lead down certain paths, toward certain outcomes, inevitable in the most circuitous and unpredictable of ways.

Our Indian man from the Gem(s) Centre has left to get the machine, providing a window of 10 minutes to consider.  Remember how the heart beat just a little bit faster at that thought, on this 50th anniversary of the Black Tot.

Remember turning down the larger stone, partly due to price but also partly due to overall sentiment.  Not to be overly grand, and justified in the way that the chosen ring is shaped like the sun’s shining morning face.  Limited negotiation, as it should be a good day for those lads too.  This is a moment that comes just once in your life, or so is the hope.  So why not Stone Town.  Beside Freddie Mercury’s house.  Bantering with the Spiro-esq Zero-Zero afterward.

We are ready, our Indian says.  Are you?

Yes.  No looking back.  Quite the pandemic it has turned out to be, given absolutely everything.  Right down to the sunset sail this eve on the Indian Ocean to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Black Tot and the 5th of this parish.  So much has happened since.  So much to come.

What a world it is.  Roll on summer.  Come in, come in, come in, come in...  the Hip floats through the mind at the poolside.  You have bought a ring, McMahon.  Who would have believed that, stepping off the boat in Cape Town?  Yet who would have cause to doubt?