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Those two lads in Hastings

My fellow traveller has now read the entry to this blog relating our trip to Hastings. He was particularly interested it seems by the appearance in my blog of the two lads from the caf.. As I remember, he completely ingnored and dismissed them as soon as they showed up. They sat right behind him which meant he could not see them, while they were in my field of vision all the time. They were, I assume, in their late teens, reasonably goodlooking (although I would say "sexy", I think, to qualify them), wearing shellsuit bottoms and polo shirts in blue-ish/grey colours. Very much conforming to the stereotype of the "scally". So much of a stereotype in fact that they lost all individuality and depth for my friend. As I was watching them interact, being easily intimate and companionable, I suppose I started to project things on what I was seeing and what I imagined to be their story. I do agree that as individuals they are indeed probably quite average and insignificant (not a nice thing to say, I know) but it seems to me that these young men usually live in packs where they have to play a social role and they don't get to relate that much on a one to one basis, if at all. In that case, it felt like they had let their guards fall and were being genuine, thinking themselves unobserved. They were actually quite touching. The fact that they looked so much alike probably re-enforced the impression of closeness. They seemed to be in some sort of bubble, although I thought I felt some sort of tension external to their pair directed towards the young waitresses. I think what attracted me there was the mundanity of the situation and some sort of yearning for an (almost arcadian) simplicity which I can only look for in my social interactions. Who knew I could be such a romantic!!!
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