People watching

Early Thursday morning............

Rain tears across the streaked windscreen. The wiper zips back and forth briefly providing a view before the glass becomes blotched and smudged again. It is cold and a quick glance at my watch tells me that I will have to wait another 40 - 50 minutes. 

To keep warm and busy - I  am knitting. 

I'd parked the car in a franchised roadside cafe and motel grounds while I wait for a colleague to meet me prior to setting off for a day's training. The only movement is the relentless stream of commuting cars on the bypass. Knit, k2tog, knit, turn, knit four, purl to end.

Eventually the rain lessens, almost to a stop, suddenly people appear. From other parked cars, from the motel, from the cafe. Travelling salesmen, sporting disheveled hair, walking with clipped time driven paces, dragging top-loader travelling cases, laptops and piles of samples. They climb into cars and drive off, joining the torrent of traffic. Click, click, time to change the colour of yarn, slip slip knit.

Workmen, in paint splashed work-wear, fluorescent trousers, blue boiler suits decamp from the cafe. Some quickly jumping into their vans and tearing off to their day's work, others clump down the steps in their heavy boots, still chewing the last bite of their breakfast as they wipe their faces with the back of a hand. 

A moment's quiet. Click click as my needles knit another row, slip slip knit. Then it starts again - only this time, a different sort of human activity. Trysts. Secret meetings. Women over dressed, ruffled hair and smudged faces, dash to their cars, some look rushed, others look smug. Couples drive up in one car then after affectionate goodbyes leave in separate vehicles. Men sprinting before the rain starts again, dressed for a good night out - at 8.15am?

Click, click, yarn over, knit knit knit slip slip knit.

My feet are cold.

The rain picks up again, my view gone, my entertainment reduced to the last few sleepy heads who try to run between the raindrops as they dash to their cars.

Suddenly my colleague arrives and is tapping at her window - signalling pointedly that she will drive to the event and I am to get out of my car. I switch off the radio, wrap up my knitting, collect up my car keys, leave.

Now it is my time to run through the rain.

The coffee and tea waiting at the venue is very welcome. We drink several cups before we felt ready for the day.

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This week has been like a 5 day spell in a high speed tumble drier and there will be no let up for the next couple of days either - we have an all weekend birthday bash to enjoy - wish me luck!