Trips Down Memory Lane Before The World Falls Apart by Alfred N.Muggins

28/11/23

    Alfred had typically been far too busy watching the tragic and desperate news from the (not so?) Holy Land, and commenting on and sharing memes and reels, and articles upon the subject(s), and of course working as well, given his employer was recently giving him far more work than he had had in a long while. As a result he kept putting off paperwork (as he still called it), although a lot of it involved reading or checking emails, and merely recording transactions etc.in his diary.

    One item of important paperwork which he typically left rather too late nearly every year, was to claim his last few holiday days of the year, from his employer. ‘Use it or lose it’, so the statement went. Recently he tended to lose quite a few of them, even though at the moment, as he was actually working quite hard, he could actually do with taking them, or at least some of them.

    He had taken his main holidays in the summer, and had accompanied his wife in her pilgrimage to see one of her favourite country stars, the beautiful and note perfect Shania Twain, on the last holiday day taken, near the end of September, in the nearby City of Leeds, where he had once studied for his degree, with vague aspirations of future success in something, whatever, and elevation into the successful classes. Unfortunately he had never actually been able to find that elusive career which might bring him actual monetary and career ‘success’, and he was still none the wiser about what he should have done all these years later.

    Anyway it had proved to be a great day out and also a great trip down memory lane, so to speak. They had found themselves in a modern city changing out of all recognition as the architects went wild with bits of it, but the students and young people bustling around in its streets had reminded him of his own student days, which still seemed not so long ago to him. Having found the ‘space age’ venue of the ‘new’ arena (it had certainly not been here when he had last lived in Leeds!) it started to rain a little.

     Mrs Muggins, sporting a new pink cowboy hat (cowgirl hat!), which she had just bought from a street vendor, was now slightly protected from the rain, but nonetheless they might as well spend a bit of time in the Merrion Centre, in which Alfred had spent a fair bit of time, particularly shopping at Morrisons, in his student days. With enthusiasm he showed his wife around this place she had never been before, and she liked it very much, soon window shopping for clothes and knick knacks, and chatting to other shoppers, who could easily see which gig they were going to this evening, as there were many tasseled and or cowboy/girl hatted fans milling around in this area of Leeds before the concert.