Gossip

It was a quiet day today. 

TP's chum; Charlie paid a visit this morning to come and ogle* my new bike. He's a lovely chap and we spent a good chunk of the morning chatting, drinking coffee and loitering in the garage.

In the afternoon I did nothing more productive than cut up an old pair of pyjamas ... I have a couple of bikes to clean and am short of polishing rags. 

Late in the afternoon TP turned up as he has some location work in Birmingham tomorrow. We are a convenient base for that job, and he'll stay for a few days ... hopefully making progress on his sound cart project.**

And now on to the title of today's Journal entry; Gossip.

A couple of days ago I was walking the dogs and bumped in to an acquaintance. As we passed the time of day, she happened to mention that someone in the village had commented about the tree that had blown over in our garden during Storm Darragh. According to this anonymous village pundit, the tree had fallen on the house and damaged the end gable.

The acquaintance questioned the veracity of this gossip and I confirmed that the tree had fallen away from the house and done little more that create a crater in the lawn, crush a hedge and provide a lot of work for me in sawing it up. The house had not been touched by the tree.

As dissected this item of gossip I pointed out that the house and the tree stump were clearly visible from the lane and, consequently, any idiot could see that the house was unharmed. I was amazed that a nugget of information could be perverted in to complete nonsense, when a simple walk past the house could provide the true picture. 

This reinforced my view of those that peddle gossip. They are stupid people that spout unfounded nonsense as fact, generally because they like to revel in the misfortune of others. If one thinks about it, this gossip has ruined their credibility, by talking such nonsense.

I don't mind being talked about behind my back, so long as the gossip is accurate. Generally I find it isn't.

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* his term, not mine

** TP has yet to learn that out of sight is out of mind and that he will really need to make a conscious effort to come over and complete the work on this trolley. He lives and works in Cardiff and it is very easy to forget about a pile of quite expensive components when you don't see them. He needs to make this project a priority, identify the time to do the work and get his arse down here to complete it.