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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Perfect afternoon
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
On a recent visit to Seattle, I had about an hour and a half to kill, waiting to see an old friend, and I spent it sitting in a cafe with a cup of iced mint tea, an almond croissant and the N.Y. Times crossword puzzle. (Alas, there was one letter I never figured out and I may have made some error!)
That seemed almost ideal to me. What would be your own ideal afternoon?
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
My perfect afternoon would be a warm summer's afternoon spent in a beautiful garden full of flowers, attached to an interesting old historic house - not too big and slightly off the beaten track. There would be a stream, or small lake sparkling in the sunlight, there would be sheep or cows grazing peacefully nearby, and birds calling to each other, and there would be tea and either a really good, generous slice of cake, or else fruit scones with cream and jam to enjoy in the fresh air.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
It would be snowing, but I would not be on call or on duty, so I would have nowhere I needed to go. (Also: Very Important: Neither staff nor clients nor their friends/families/foes would have any access, by telephone, email or carrier pigeon, to this place.)
There would be a lengthy, well-written, intricately-plotted novel, and a substantial pot of brewed tea (or, as the afternoon wore on toward evening, a glass of sherry), and a fireplace with a plentiful supply of wood close at hand. An affectionate but calm cat might be a nice touch.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Jemima the 9th
Shipmate
# 15106
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Posted
Watching six nations rugby (Wales to win, natch) on the tellybox, with mug after mug of tea, buttered malt loaf, and an open fire. I spent a few afternoons like this in childhood, and it's one of my fondest memories.
Posts: 801 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2009
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
I can think of a number. One is when I've fallen asleep outside with the wind playing with the leaves and sun overhead, and the sound of people in the distance.
Another is warming my toes after a day of skiing by a fire. Bittersweet cup of cocoa in my cold hands.
Yet another is a very, very cold day, about -40 or 40° (C or F, they're the same down there), and it is still, with ice crystals in the air, and sundogs** are all around the sphere of the sky. Once and only once, we saw a rainbow in a perfect circle between them. It was like heaven come down.
** The first picture in the wikipedia article on sundogs gives an idea.. If you can imagine a complete circle of them with the rainbow circle above...
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Option A:
A spot of window-shopping in Cambridge, followed by what D. and I call the Cambridge Sprint - Evensong at King's followed by a quick sprint along the road for Evensong at St. John's. Even better if followed by dinner in a Café Rouge.
Option B:
Curling up on the sofa with a warm blanket, a book and a teddy-bear. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jemima the 9th:
Watching six nations rugby (Wales to win, natch) on the tellybox, with mug after mug of tea, buttered malt loaf, and an open fire. I spent a few afternoons like this in childhood, and it's one of my fondest memories.
For me, just substitute a really good book and an open fire (a turf fire for preference because of the smell) in a quiet room, a comfortable rug and cushion to lie on in front of it, and that would be my perfect winter evening.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jemima the 9th:
Watching six nations rugby (Wales to win, natch) on the tellybox, with mug after mug of tea, buttered malt loaf, and an open fire. I spent a few afternoons like this in childhood, and it's one of my fondest memories.
Wales winning, in your childhood? So that means you're either about 50, or in your late teens/ early twenties
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Watching Wales win, eating hot buttered toasted tea cake, then finding Evensong on the radio with Dyson in D ...
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
One of my perfect afternoons was when Daughter-Unit and I were driving home from (the Blessed) Erin's memorial service. D-U had had a migraine that morning, and was very tired. She thought she might sleep the entire 5-hour drive home, but instead, we talked about everything: the service, the family, the other Shipmates, her life and mine.
I think the reason this day stands out in my mind beyond the memorable reason we were in Jax, was that was the day that D-U told me that I am her very best friend. ![[Tear]](graemlins/tear.gif)
I still tear up thinking about that.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Twenty years ago, driving back from a wedding in Norfolk to dinner with friends in Cambridge, on a spring afternoon/ early evening, and listening to Test Match Special with Angus Fraser going through the West Indian batting order like a knife throuh butter.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
I'm also sitting in Ariel's historic garden, with a good book to accompany the cream tea.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
Twenty years ago, driving back from a wedding in Norfolk to dinner with friends in Cambridge, on a spring afternoon/ early evening, and listening to Test Match Special with Angus Fraser going through the West Indian batting order like a knife throuh butter.
I was contemplating Devon Malcolm's "You guys are history" spell. Ah, bliss.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
If we're talking about perfect sporting moments, that Saturday at the 2012 Olympics when Britain won all those gold track and field medals has to be up there - I'm going all fuzzy round the edges just thinking about it.
And Andy Murray's Wimbledon win.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715
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Posted
A walk through the snow covered countryside in the late afternoon ending as darkness fall and the stars twinkle.
Returning to our 300 year old candlelit cottage in Creamtealand with a wood fire burning (sweet scented apple or pear wood) and a mug of tea.
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
I sang at two carol concerts last Sunday. It involved putting on a floor length frock and walking boots, stomping the 2 miles down to the local stately home, going into the wonderful chapel and singing carols and a little lullaby solo with the sun illuminating the lovely stained glass above us, mince pie and sherry in the library with the choral members and audience and then a stomp back home in the dark with the stars utterly beautiful above me.
Cattyish, many lovely days.
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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004
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Captain1
Apprentice
# 16153
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Posted
Porridge has absolutely nailed it!!
Posts: 8 | From: Central VA, USA | Registered: Jan 2011
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sharkshooter
Not your average shark
# 1589
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Posted
The perfect afternoon would include a nice single malt, a hot tub and sex. Pretty much in any combination/order.
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Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. [Psalm 19:14]
Posts: 7772 | From: Canada; Washington DC; Phoenix; it's complicated | Registered: Oct 2001
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
Cricket seems to be a theme here!
Personally one of my ideas of a great afternoon would be a nice summer's day, chance to get in and have a decent bat, maybe biff a couple of sixes (this is important - when I hit a six it's not because I'm trying hard, it's because everything just flows, it's Zen), decent tea with egg sandwiches, nice cakes, and a cuppa strong enough to stand a spoon in. Follow that up with a bit of breeze to bowl into, nice long spell taking wickets cheaply, win the game (dramatic finish would be good), then post-mortem over a few real ales with the decent blokes who make up my club team.
Bliss!
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
Sitting outside a city-centre cafe in the sun (but not too hot) with a mug of hot chocolate (or Earl Grey Tea if somewhere that does it properly) and a slice of the local cake speciality, watching the world go by.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I think Joanna and I have similar notions.
Another one I like is myself, walking alone in picturesque country with lunch and camera.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Sitting listening to King's, wrapping the last presents and realising the children have grown beyond bickering, fixed the fairy lights and even laid the table for tomorrow.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by JoannaP:
Sitting outside a city-centre cafe in the sun (but not too hot) with a mug of hot chocolate (or Earl Grey Tea if somewhere that does it properly) and a slice of the local cake speciality, watching the world go by.
Watching the world go by ... my bf and I had several perfect afternoons earlier this autumn, on a city break to Rome, sitting at a table outside a favourite cafe in the Piazza Navona with a bottle of red wine, watching the street entertainers and the people going by.
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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spork
Shipmate
# 18260
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Posted
I now realise that the perfect afternoon is watching rubbish TV and waiting for Pointless* to start with my dearly departed Dad ![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif)
*British daily quiz show
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God only made one of me, most people agree this is a good thing
Posts: 62 | From: Lincolnshire, England | Registered: Oct 2014
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