I love to polish things. I think black leather shoes give the most pleasure but silver and brass come very close seconds. It is very rewarding as you get an instant payback for your efforts. What was dull is now bright and glistening.

Out of the strong came forth sweetness

This is a good thing as amongst my meagre possessions there is an inordinate amount of silverware and some brass. I also have one good pair of black leather shoes.

I think this unlikely source of enjoyment dates back to when I was at school. Our shoes were inspected every morning as we entered the dining hall for breakfast. Dirty shoes meant going back to the boot room to polish them, which equalled  being late for  breakfast by which time your ravenous schoolmates had eaten nearly everything. We were also obliged to be in the Combine Cadet Force, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This entailed polishing army boot toecaps and shining belt brasses. This we tended to do communally and many the happy an hour I spent in the boot room. As we were always bored  sitting around polishing boots at least gave us something to do. Thus when I have not much to do I find myself polishing stuff.

A good carpenter is known by his tools - Silvo is the only really efficient silver polish. I brought it to Okinawa all the way from England.

In my recent polishing frenzy I find a silver card holder that my learned friend Sandy gave me many years ago that had lain in the bottom of a drawer more or less ever since. Card exchange is a ritual of the utmost importance in Japan. I have noticed that most people people have fancy card holders whereas I hoick my card out of my top pocket. Now I am equipped.

Thanks Sandy