‘A Brace of Vicars’

I diverted away from my normal route the other day and eventually found myself over in Palmerston Road shopping precinct.

I had not visited for a while and so it seemed only fair to stroll through and to see if anything down there had changed.

But apart from a relatively new coffee outlet; (which they obviously really needed; said Bob pondering sarcastically) things were, as far as I could make out at least; much the same as normal.

The flower seller who I always associate with Palmy Road, was down in his usual place.

Although in fairness, there was a classical guitar player who I hadn’t recalled seeing there before. He wore a rather fetching large floppy beige sun hat; and was diligently finger picking some classical magic to the joy of the passing public. This he did with a solemn serious expression to his face whilst rocking gently back and forth precariously on a tiny little three legged foldaway camping chair.

There were people down there with collecting tins for local charities dotted throughout the street and smiling as they guilt tripped passers by who were blatantly trying every trick in the book to avoid them.

People sat drinking their coffees and cool drinks chatting outside the street cafes; whilst just occasionally a cyclist would weave through the crowd, gingerly avoiding any unwanted collisions.

But it was only when I walked up towards one of the larger stores down there that I spotted these two fine gentlemen of the cloth. I was immediately determined to capture the image for today’s blog entry, thinking to myself that it isn’t everyday one gets two vicars together at the same time.

But sure enough there they were. Both sitting on a bench in the precinct.

I didn’t really pay much attention initially and it was only after having downloaded these images that I realised how dour both men had looked. I think they were somewhat unimpressed by the presence of this would be street photographer who had suddenly presented himself  before them and commenced to cheekily fire off a couple of uninvited camera shots.

I was determined though to stand my ground managing to get these new captures to add to my collection.I then carried walking on towards where I had parked the van knowing that I only had a few minutes remaining on my ticket.

Strangely though; on arriving back in the car park, I see the traffic warden placing a fixed penalty ticket notice on the windscreen of the vehicle just two away from my own.

As I got back inside the van I immediately grabbed my ticket to check the time remaining, only to find I was actually ten minutes over my allocation.

“PHEW” I said to myself. “How lucky was that?”

But then I thought hang on a minute. Was this simply pure luck which I had just experienced?

Or might there have been some degree of divine intervention from above?