Sun tan lotion, SPF 'caterpillar'

This one's going back a year or so now, but it's worth the wait. It's actually kind of fun to rummage around the box of paper under my desk, just to see what Gem may surface. In fact, it's even better than you'd think, because Julie's normal reaction upon hearing what I had written down is something along the lines of, "I never said that! You're making it up!"
Yeah, right. I wish. If I could make up this kind of stuff, I'd be making millions from script and/or book writing.

Normally, when I dredge something up from the depths of time, I find that I have absolutely no ideas what was going on to make it such a howler in the first place. It's precisely like the old family in-joke, the type that's never funny to anyone, because you had to be there at the time. Well, until I learned to jot down a little context, I felt like someone was trying to tell me the story while I'm sat there nodding and smiling politely...
Not this time. I can recall this one very clearly, although I have to admit that the length of the Gem itself does help to fill in some of the details. You see, before Julie managed to land the evening job at the hospital, she would often come and meet me from work and we'd then walk home together. It was really rather nice, especially during the warmer months. The route home is really rather straightforward, just a few main roads once you leave the industrial estate where I work. However, it's much better to nip up and along some of the side roads. It doesn't add much to the journey and it's far better than walking alongside the rush-hour traffic.
We were walking along and generally chatting away, when I suddenly noticed I had a small passenger on my arm.

Cute little fellow, isn't he? This caterpillar was only a couple of centimetres long and a few millimetres wide, but it must have had springs concealed somewhere about its person, because I couldn't recall brushing up against anything.

(please note; the following conversation takes place between Julie and myself, despite the fact my opening line is directed to the caterpillar. I say this only to forestall the inevitable smart comments. You may, however, feel quite free to come up with any other smart comments)

... yes dear.


That's it for this week, we hope you have a great weekend. Next week, we'll be kicking things off with a Gem topic that just will not go away...