My life is a solitary sort of life. I work away from home and live in peoples spare rooms and this seems to worry people. My landladies worry that I spend too much time alone in my room. My dad worries that I go to the cinema on my own. Luckily I don't mind, I'm happy with my own company. I've found that I'm more likely to have a bout of loneliness when I'm with a group of casual acquaintances, people I've been thrown together with through work, than when I'm on my own. I find that I'm more observant when I'm out on my own. I took myself off to Llandudno for the weekend recently and had a happy couple of hours wandering on the beach taking pictures. I was on my hands and knees taking pictures of worm casts, pebbles and snails. The kinds of things that I would have walked right past had I been chattering away to a friend.
I'm less likely to go into a coffee shop when I'm on my own, but I'm working on that. On being braver about going to the theatre or cinema or out to eat on my own. As I'm not planning on changing my career any time soon I'll have plenty of time to practice. So if you're out and about and spot a slightly pink in the face knitter having a coffee, it might be me.
