diversion

There's a free paper called the Metro that is given out on the underground in the morning. By the time I take the bus home in the afternoons, previously read copies have usually migrated to the bus. Today I flipped through it as my bus followed a "diversion" - what we Americans would call a "detour" - due to a water main that broke last week and caused the road to buckle. It adds about 15 minutes to my commute, which is all the more time to read the Metro. Today I read my horoscope:

Leo: Selfish Leo has been put back in the box in favour of gregarious, humanitarian, peace-loving Leo. Helping widows and orphans is right up your street today. For the greater good, of course, not for personal glory.

This selfish Leo has caught cold #2 of my time in the UK (like a kid going to school for the first time - all new germs!). I was feeling miserable and blowing my nose, when one of the folks I was working with at the day center asked me if I had a cold. I said yes, but was luckily prevented from launching into a "pity me" speech when he said he had one too. He then told me about sleeping in the rain all night, trying to keep his patch of pavement - British for "sidewalk" - dry with some flattened boxes, to no avail. His story was matter of fact and conversational, not a "pity him" speech at all.

Experiences like this one definitely give one proper perspective.