The town where I live has been described as 'quaint', 'olde England' and 'characterful'.
This means that it is entirely unsuited to the 21st century. If I'm honest, it wasn't a lot of good in the 20th century either. Traffic is a big problem, with the 'Y' shaped street layout being gridlocked for much of every day.
In the middle of this layout is a traffic island, and as I made my way to the osteopath for my weekly dose of sado-masochism/physio-therapy I saw a man dressed in a dapper white suit standing on a traffic island between the static cars.
He was playing a violin, and the music had made all those on the pavements on either side of the road stop and listen. It was quite, quite beautiful. He wasn't busking, and there was no way to give him any money anyway. He was just playing for the joy of it.
And for a while the rain, the traffic and the greyness that is Autumn in England melted away as the music washed over we who were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
