Venus moved across the surface of the sun today. I arose from my bed early to witness the final stages of it's transit. What I saw left me speechless. Dave says he can’t understand how ‘some black splodge’ can cause such excitement. I haven’t told him that it was too cloudy to observe the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Nor have I revealed the reason behind my heightened sense of happiness.

You see, I was not alone. The mysterious properties of Venus had also attracted the presence of that nice checkout girl. We exchanged smiles before standing in relative silence, heads craned towards a cloudy sullen sky, both of us knowing that the brightest of all the planets would continue to elude us. It didn’t matter. I got to walk her home.

Venus has made the news today. People with telescopes and sun filters expressing themselves in ‘oos’ and ‘ahhs’. Impressive as the pictures may appear, they are but poor imitations of true beauty and wonderment. In my eyes, checkout girl cannot be outshone. She is my Venus. I won’t be divulging this to Dave. I fear piss-taking on scales previously unprecedented. Being sensitive is frowned upon around here.