{"id":1427,"date":"2022-11-21T21:44:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T21:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2022-11-21T21:50:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T21:50:19","slug":"a-lesson-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/a-lesson-in-life\/1427\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"bric-\u00e0-brac<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s at it again, using her allure to get people to do things for her. I watch jealously from my bric-\u00e0-brac jumble sale stall. I had spent the last half an hour carrying heavy bags from my car. Now, she strolls in, followed by a team of eager pleasers hauling all her boxes. I really hate her sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela, five foot eight and with an effervescent personality and curly blond locks. I understand what the entire male population sees in her, but what I don\u2019t get is why she is able to bewitch the female population as well. That doesn\u2019t include me, of course. I\u2019m immune to her charms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve known each other since we were eight. We were buddied together by the teacher. We are complete opposites. I suppose that\u2019s why we get along so well. I don\u2019t tread on her toes and she doesn\u2019t tread on mine. The bonus prize is that I get invited to some great parties as her plus one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, she’s in charge of the bookstall today. I don\u2019t think she\u2019s read anything other than a textbook in all her life. As I glance across the hall, I notice there is an actual queue of would be purchasers hanging on her every word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh my God, I don\u2019t believe it. She is actually signing the books for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turn away and sigh noisily to disguise my disbelief in her actions. Whilst waiting for at least one customer, I realise that I definitely chose the short straw this time. Who would actually want to buy other people\u2019s rubbish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAhem,\u201d a voice interrupts my thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh sorry, I didn\u2019t see you there. How can I help?\u201d I say as I look up. Standing in front of me is a burly man. He looks around my age and seems quite shy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAngela,\u201d he said, nodding in her general direction, \u201cTold me that you were the person to come and see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look across and see Angela nodding at me. Here it comes, I thought, another one of her castoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve signed up to run a bric-\u00e0-brac stall at Saturday\u2019s Charity Fair, only I\u2019ve had trouble getting any donations. Everybody seems to throw things out these days. It\u2019s no wonder there’re problems with overflowing landfill sites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pay more attention to this handsome stranger. I couldn\u2019t have put that better myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you see anything here you like?\u201d I say, immediately regretting it as a blush took over my entire face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our eyes meet across the detritus, and we both laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was thinking all of it. Would \u00a350 cover it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling very at ease with him, I said, \u201cDoes all of it include me? I\u2019m free on Saturday and I\u2019d love to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His smile lit up his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a date,\u201d he said, as he gave me a mischievous wink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look across to Angie and give her a thumb up sign. She returns it with both thumbs up.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She\u2019s at it again, using her allure to get people to do things for her. I watch jealously from my bric-\u00e0-brac jumble sale stall. I had spent the last half an hour carrying heavy bags from my car. Now, she strolls in, followed by a team of eager pleasers hauling all her boxes. I really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,685],"tags":[7,12,14],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-nov-2022-the-lesson","tag-her","tag-my","tag-she"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-n1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1431,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}