Getting to know who we are at the end of the day..? 26 2 15

re-writing what I have just lost...on yesterday's St Valentine's Day: in Finland Friendship Day

That is or was meeting the Captain and an encapsulation of the person he met from a later reflection..
When I recalled one of my last walks in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland in 2019 when I took this taxi prearranged to collect me at 7 am this particular autumnal morning with sun shining...
Beinn a'Ghlo the peak or collection of peaks maybe 4 or 5 in total I had visited several times in the past but this day hoping to complete my assalt?
Then coming upon three others each carrying much heavier ruck sacks, the two together having caught the third man with the heaviest sack, my day pack the lightest of the four.
Me by this time somewhat intoxicated with the adrenalin or endorphins released on my ascent so far of maybe an hour's hard up-hill hiking. But not someone greeted by this trio for they were far too engrossed in discussing the going whilst carrying their heavy sacks...So overtook them and dug in to complete my undertaking

Now back to yesterday's meeting: pumped up again or intoxicated to colour the words that came out of my mouth, an off-comer here, but one who was invited for his special knowledge, avoiding to enter into a discussion of military matters but instead siting those of a military background whom it was my good fortune to meet, First our Chairman and CEO's brother-in-law, Dick (a man he met at their Charterhouse Public School as pupils maybe in the same year. Who in turn were WW II war heros, Phillip an Acting Wing Commander in the Air Force, and Dick the youngest Lieutenant Commander in the Navy) whom I accompanied at the suggestion of his Sales Development Mgr, a close colleague who sited my history of living in Finland and speaking Finnish: accompanying once, whence thereafter he delegated the job of visiting every six months for the next 6 1/2 years to me. And since in their eyes evidently successfully, when our Chairman had business here, he requested also that I accompany him too.
Thereafter, followed the others I met here of a military disposition wherein "Sir" entered his speech, clearly impressed with my standing in this local community: the Major who commanded the nearby island garrison, or the son of the Colonel, who commanded the garrison not 30 miles, say 40 km away, who founded the Finnish branch of Amnesty International, or his grandparents who were a part of the Red's leadership in Finland's Civil War..?
Amounting to some rather heavy-handed name-dropping were it not for my intoxicated state of mind perhaps forgivable, as noted above...
But for all that an encapsulation of the kind of person, he had bumped into : and giving me something more to reflect on: an old man feeling perhaps ever more isolated? Visiting his swimmers' hut this last 2 weeks on many days the sole visitor, hacking the freshly formed ice away each morning in temperatures varying between -2 and -17 degC, glad today and yesterday to be joined by others.

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