Minimal

One of the great things about owning a cute car is when strangers point it out to you. It’s an instant pick-me-up. Case in point: when stopping at a youth hostel this weekend, the family running it was curious to see which of the guests owned which car.

“Whose is the Mini?” the mother asked first.

“That’s mine,” I said proudly.

“Oooh, we love that one”.

And that was all it took. I bathed in the little car’s reflected glory. It even outshone a TVR Griffith that was also stopping for the weekend. No matter what forms the next rung on the car-ownership ladder, I doubt it’ll receive as many compliments as my current run-around does. And for that, I love it immensely. :)

Not content with a week’s volunteering, I’m off to be a goody-two-shoes again this coming weekend. This time, I’ll be stacking rocks. Or rather, I’ll be dry stone walling for a couple of days near the Killhope Lead Mining Museum in the North Pennines. Lord knows how much (little?) the group will get done, but it should be a nice break from work. And maybe this time I’ll take the odd photo of my handiwork, just to prove I too can stack stones.

Earlier today, I learnt of the death of an old school friend. An email came round at work, telling of a charity dress-down day in aid of the Dianne Mather Big Heart Trust. Instantly, this caught my attention — I’d been to school with a Dianne Mather and it can’t be that common a name. Sure enough, after checking the website, I confirmed that it was indeed the Dianne I knew. Not only that, but she died last year from congenital heart disease. *sound of jaw dropping*

I have to say, I was truly shocked and saddened. While we never exactly hung out together, we had plenty of good mutual friends (including one I dated serially ;) and got on well enough. She even got in touch via Friends Reunited a few years back, but being the lazy sod I am, we never met up, as she was living in London. Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, but I do wish I’d made the effort now. I had no idea, at the time, that she had any sort of health issues. Amazing that I never knew, really...

Anyway, why post about this to the weblog? Well, mostly as a release for me, but also to improve her site’s findability. Google seems to know nothing about “Dianne Mather”, but maybe it’ll find this cunningly-titled blog entry. Anyone looking for the trust should find it then.