The Bub in the Belly

When I was a little girl, one of my favourite films was "My Fair Lady" starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so she can pass as a proper lady. It has been described as the "perfect musical". I watched it over and over again. I knew the lyrics to all the songs and I even knew the lines for all the scenes. I still sing the songs to myself sometimes. One day, I hope to watch the original Broadway musical.

Anyway, I was reminded of it last night. We went out for a walk down our street. Richard and Ryan were walking ahead of me and it struck me that this would be one of the last few times that we would stroll along our street. There were many things about our street which I have grown accustomed to. The peacefulness. The cars parked along the side. The trees. The dogs, including a huge brown one which we thought was a bear and the crazy labrador who barks at everyone who passes by (don't believe all you hear about friendly labradors - this one actually tried to maul my dog once). The grumpy old lady who tells us to steer our dog clear of her front gate because our dog was "dirty". The kids who bounce on their trampoline in their garden. The old man at the top of the row who washes the part of the public road in front of his house and scolds the road workers for messing the road up. The old couple living next door -they planted shrubs on the pedestrian sidewalk on the other side of the street because they just had too many plants in their garden and when they walk out of their house, the husband walks twenty paces ahead of the wife. The security guards at the neighbouring condominium who recognised our dog and helped us to find him when he went missing.

I was reminded of the song "On the street where you live" where Freddy sings about how he loves Eliza and that he will wait for her on the street where she lives. He sings,

I have often walked down this street before;
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.
All at once am I Several stories high.
Knowing I'm on the street where you live.
Are there lilac trees in the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does enchantment pour Out of ev'ry door?
No, it's just on the street where you live!

Of course it's a song about love, not about the street. It just comes to my mind everytime I have good feeling about a street! Hahaha!

Anyway, here they were last night, father and son walking up the street. This was really late - around midnight. Sigh, one of the little things I will miss. Hopefully we will have a similar routine at our new neighbourhood.