Shouts From Down Under

Two sides of the bathroom tile saga

Baked chicken, with mashed potato and gravy was our meal for tea tonight, cooked by my wife. Thanks very much, I really appreciated your efforts in preparing this meal for our pleasure.

Afterwards I was sitting here with full stomach pains, thinking about bathroom tiles and the two views you can see if you sit there long enough.

You know the ones I mean? They are laid in an offset diamond pattern, a style from the 1950's? I'm not sure but you would see them at your grandmother's most likely.
Whether on purpose or not, they act like an illusion. One way you see them as steps leading up, and then if you sit there a while and concentrate, they suddenly change and are steps going down. Something like that anyway.

So I'm sitting here and my daughter was on the computer when suddenly our dogs howled outside, in the dark. It was a spooky sound all right, and daughter stops mouse clicking to say excitedly,

"DAD, WE HAVE A WEREWOLF OUTSIDE!!"

Meanwhile I'd been sitting here contemplating our chicken bones, the carcase of what had once been a living bird.

You see, there are two views in life. Really there are!

First View
One is all nice and happy. Family dinner of lusciously tender chicken, tasty gravy and snow white mashed potato with green spots of parsley sprinkled through it. Our house is wood heated and well lit, even if it badly needs renovating. We enjoy insulated ceiling with lathe and plaster walls, a corrugated iron roof and concrete brick walls. Solid, safe and comfortable. You could even say, satisfying.
Especially after a meal like that. I'm sure our dogs would agree as they eat a huge bowl of scraps each and growl at each other.

Second View
A pack of carnivores inhabiting an artificial cave, sitting with bloated greedy stomachs after stuffing our champing faces with dead bird flesh.
One of the carnivorous beasts, a female, using it's bi folded upper limbs is poking with bone stumps, distractedly at a plastic communication device, then cackles in delight at the approach of an external predator.
The signal from outside the earthen and steel dwelling, muffled in the foggy night, loudly proclaims coming evil, an attack of the un-dead, in revenge for those whose white teeth gnashed in the firelight.

What is the point of all this less than appetising comparison? Who cares? The chicken was divine, that's all I know.

Sparky