Life in the slow lane

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining... well, not much anyway. Life has not been especially kind to me over the last seven and a bit years, with the result that I have gone from being a property owning business proprietor with money in the bank to being a  penniless, jobless, money-owing  homeless individual relying on the kindness of others to survive. This is never easy to take, much less so when one is not in the first flush of youth and is fond some of the finer things in life...

My gripe is not with anyone or anything, though there are a few people that I consider to have behaved extremely badly towards me, nor is it with life; in essence I'm just having a bit of a moan. In truth, life in general has been mainly kind over the years and I've enjoyed times and things that many other people never get even near to in their lifetime. And as you know, friends have sickened and fallen by the wayside but I'm still here, alive and kicking, waiting to write the next chapter in my life, good or - hopefully not - bad.

Human beings often complain bitterly about the unfairness of life, how we are suffering when others are not, how hard we have it while others live on easy street. We can be really simplistic sometimes, despite the fact that a quick look around us will show others not a million miles away living under far worse conditions - and I don't mean the starving of Africa or the persecuted in the Far East. There is homelessness and deprivation even in the richest of western democracies, suffering and pain, even modern versions of slavery. The fact that we can no longer afford certain non-essential items, even certain luxuries, should be neither here nor there, but many of us spend hours agonising over trivialities.

Celebrate life while you have it, people, that's the message. Slow lane, fast lane, it doesn't really matter. Find things to rejoice in, to enjoy, at your new level, maybe simpler, more basic. Life is what it is not what we want it to be, and there is plenty of enjoyment to be had if one is careful and selective. As a rather extreme example (but one that comes from my wine merchant days): I do not claim that a decent bottle of an everyday wine - say a good Cotes du Rhone from a juicy year - can replace your Mouton 1961, but it can certainly give pleasure, lots of it, if you are receptive to its charms and do not scorn it because of its rather simple pedigree. Go for it, glug it, allow yourselves the enjoyment of even the simple things; my current circumstances have taught me that, shown me clearly... Yes, of course, there are times when I miss the great pleasures, but it is a fleeting feeling with little bite.

I am not advocating accepting mediocrity and lack of quality simply to save on cost, simply because we cannot afford it. Rather, I am talking about shifting focus, lowering our sights and looking for bargains at lower levels, pleasure on a budget, special offers, affordability of items of decent quality if spectacular is out of reach. And there is lots of pleasure to be found in these little offers, lots; they are out there waiting to be discovered.

The other day I had croissants and coffee at a little place at the wrong end of Maida Vale, run as a one woman show by a passionate, committed, perfectionist chef. They were lovely - crispy on the outside and feather-light on the inside - and not expensive, so I also bought a ham and emmental sandwich to take away for later. This may have cost ten percent more than the mass market/commercial alternatives but was twenty percent bigger, had better ingredients, impeccable homemade french bread and was made to order - it tasted like wonderful sandwiches you used to be able to find in France thirty years ago and which now are nowhere to be seen... What a splendid lunch it made for yours truly, despite being 'merely a sandwich' and even without wine!

In the not too distant future I shall do a proper post about this place, once I've had the chance to sample a full meal, so I'm not revealing everything just yet to keep you salivating.  But I promise you will hear all about this little find - I just need to save up the pennies first. And as it's presently unlicensed (this may be about to change) I will need to take a bottle of wine with me, one that will be heavily discounted for one reason or another but which will give great pleasure, far far more than its humble price would suggest. What a treat that will be for us all!

Life in the slow lane doesn't have to be all bad. Let's make the most of the hand we've been dealt and enjoy as much as we can of whatever we can. In the long run we're all dead anyway.