Have we mentioned the weather lately?

probably, but it is always a good conversation starter.  At least, it is here in England.  Pass somebody in the street, somebody one knows only very slightly, and the conversation will go something like this:

"Morning!  Lovely day."

"At the moment, but I think it will rain later."

"Well, the garden could do with it."

It really does get just a trifle boring.

There are days when I feel like grinning inanely as I walk to the park with the dog, not because I feel especially happy, but because so many people look as though they have the cares of the world on their shoulders and I just want to take their minds off things.  At least if they see me looking daft they'll go on their way puzzling rather than frowning.  Well, that's the theory - whether or not it would work I just don't know; I've never tried it.

We used to do silly things like that on the train sometimes.  Yes, I know we should have acted our ages but we just felt like being foolish once in a while.  It was back when I was working in London.  There were four or five of us who smoked and were regular travellers on the 17:43 from London Bridge.  Smoking was banned on most of the train but there were just a few compartments where it was permitted and we always travelled in the same one.  We were a small, select group - at least, we thought so.  Sometimes, if it looked as though we were about to be joined by somebody we didn't like the look of, we would all adopt ridiculous poses.  The person next to the window, for instance, would press his nose against the glass and pull silly faces.  It always stopped others getting into the compartment.

All I can say in mitigation is that I've grown up since then.