SERENDIPITOUS MAGIC MOMENTS

Who doesn’t look for serendipitous magic moments?

I look for them in the house, on the block, in town, while traveling out.

If you’re looking, they are there.

I got off the plane in London, caught a taxi to the jet lag hotel, and discovered my universal electrical adapter didn’t work there.

Or anywhere.

The hotel had a store I noticed at check-in and went over to buy a new one.

The lady in front of me was doing the same thing.

It was her last night in England and she lost the one she’d been using.

Lady: I’m only using it tonight. Tell me your room number and I’ll drop it off before I leave.

Me: Thank you.

What would you say are the chances of this happening?

I opened the door the next morning and there it was.

It was the first of many serendipitous magic moments.

 

Having tea in the famous Pump Room in Bath, England was another.

That’s where my wife’s parents met for the very first time.

Their meeting feels like a song.

Some enchanted evening
You may see a stranger
You may see a stranger
Across a crowded room
And somehow you know
You know even then
That somewhere you’ll see her
Again and again

 

Three weeks later the wife and I were scouting out Hyde Park for a cup of coffee and ended up having tea in the Kensington Palace Orangery.

It was elegant, unexpected, and a joy to be in the room, which sounds like High Tea to me.

Afterwards we spotted the coffee cart.

Wife: We could have skipped the whole thing if we saw this first.

Me: I wouldn’t change a thing. We’re in Princess Diana’s hangout.

 

Magic Moments

Now and then serendipitous magic moments come with a halo, or a halo effect.

I’m no angel, but there was something going on when we entered the Bath Abbey.

If there’s a church with a door, my wife is walking for a look around.

This particular church was in center of the city and a guided tour was just beginning.

We tagged along, but he was hard to hear because a choir of school kids was rehearsing with a band.

As churches go, this one had quite a backstory.

Families could buy crypts in the floor so one by one family bodies were stacked in the floor, which lead to an uneven floor, and worse, a smell.

The magic moment was noticing the odor of  death wasn’t present.

Whew.

1844 AD

 

A Certain Magic

Unlike the less adventurous we avoided the obvious tourist hotels.

Ask yourself, ‘do I need to stay in the Holiday Inn, or something close?’

There’s something special about staying in old places where your wife can lean out and yell your name down the street because you walked past the door.

Wife: David, DAVID. Where are you going?

I wasn’t lost, just not paying attention. Once I find my stride I block everything else out to keep the pace.

Looking back and seeing the only person I knew in town hanging out the window was one of those serendipitous magic moments.

How long would I have kept marching?

I’d just drug our huge suitcase on wheels a mile away to the parking lot instead of bringing the car to the room.

Up this street, turn left, go past the park, turn around because it was a right turn not a left, then wander around the huge car park until I found car.

I passed this on the way back, which wasn’t the same path I took to the car.

We could never live on Quiet Street.

Wife: DAVID, DAVID, I’M UP HERE.

Me: WHAT?

Wife: WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Me: YOU LOOK CUTE UP THERE.

Wife: WHAT?

Me: I’M COMING IN.

 

 

Can’t you feel the magic?