Some things become too routine and you forget their impact until you experience it again with someone for their first time.
I seem to be making a habit of dinner at South Bank. This time a lovely Italian restaurant where we sat outside watching people promenade along the river. We had enjoyed a meal of pasta as the sun set. Then at 8pm my dining buddy almost fell off his chair. The sculptured chimney stacks lined up along the length of the river started humming and erupting in rolling balls of flame. Our proximity made it rather comical. I knew the humming was a prelude to the bursts of gas and flame, but it hadn’t occurred to me to explain what was to come. I thought it was just normal waiting expectantly, until I saw my friend halfway out of his seat. Oops, my bad 🙂
It was a five minute show of co-ordinated shooting flames along the length of the river with spectacular visuals. The radiant heat was a telling sign of how close we were. So don’t forget that something old can be new again when viewed vicariously through the first-time experience of someone else.
