INDEX	June 4, 2019
I had been spotting a disconcerting series of single magpies. You will be aware of the old rhyme. One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy... Etc. At least I think it's an old rhyme containing ancient wisdom but maybe it's just a children's tv theme. Certainly I'd heard that peasants working in the field squinted when a single magpie flew by so they saw two instead of one. Maybe I should have squinted. I'd been running and arrived home sweaty. I was surprised to hear a din inside. What could it be? My phone, the hi fi? It was the fire alarm and the kitchen seemed to have a cloud of smoke. I went in and found the floor flooded. The smoke or steam seemed to be coming from the boiler so I turned it off. The water was coming from a broken plastic connection pipe that feeds the washing machine but before I could deal with that I had to turn that bloody alarm off. How do you do that? I pushed and pressed but nothing worked. The only way was to dismantle it and remove the battery. Then I turned off the washing machine Some sort of sanity resumed then a shelf running the length of the kitchen collapsed breaking glass jars and, sending saucepans flying. You have to laugh. I have a friend who says you only ever see pairs of magpies. You can tell he leads a charmed life.
INDEX Jonathan Brind		June 4, 2019