Look Up.


It’s not every day you can say you took a nice photo in a gents’ toilet, but I can say it today.



It was my second time on the premises and second time in the aforementioned manbog today. I met my dad for lunch at Hitchin’s Pitcher & Piano (formerly the Corn Exchange / Que Pasa / That Big Building on the Square, next to Waterstone’s) and then returned there after a doctor’s appointment to have a quick pint (alien words to me) and catch up on a little admin before going home. It was on washing my hands after a trip to the Little Boys Room that I looked up and noticed the skylight, which I’ve never spotted before, despite having been in there countless times over the years; how could I have missed something so pleasant?

I guess it’s because visiting the gents is a keep-your-head-down affair. It’s also not somewhere you hang around in (well, I don’t). I was so taken aback by how good the skylight looked that I crouched on the floor and pointed my phone skyward in the hope of capturing it before someone came in and wondered what the hell I was doing; there’s enough awkwardness unintentionally in my life without courting it.

I guess this is proof of how, when you pay attention to what’s going on around you, you may notice something you wouldn’t normally see. It was a literal eye-opener. I’ll never be so foolish as to not stare at the ceiling of public toilets again; is that something to be proud of?

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