The day started well. I'd gone to bed early last night and started The Virago Book of Witches purchased some time ago in the Wellcome bookshop. I read a story for myself about Indravati and then slept. When I woke up, the ginger cat was there as usual, and I leapt on him for a change, and said out loud, "Ha, ha! Got you." He was nonchalant.
I was going to do a shop today, but instead, I decided to stay at home, and think a bit about that... staying, and not just going because someone said I could go to the shops if I wanted. I tried to sit down to work after the family call (where my nephews showed up and that was nice), but I couldn't settle. (I settled at 18:30, turns out.) I made a frankenhash for lunch, which was tasty but undeniably weird.
I think everyone's exhausted. It's not like we're out and about in the world tired. It's more like our minds are tired. I'm listening to Bill Bryson's The Body intermittently -- got his chapter on viruses yesterday on my lovely walk by mistake which was a bit sour for the moment, but -- and the intro to his chapter on the brain was a delight. He also said that the brain basically needs a stable amount of energy to perform the bazillions of tasks it performs every second (I think), but somehow, in the last while, it's been performing more tasks than that... or different ones... and, certainly the not-youth amongst us are possibly trying to build new neural pathways to address how to be all over again, which, if you're anything like me, you probably don't do all that often. (Incidentally, moving countries is really good for that, but this is different.) We're in a different zone now, and all of a sudden. That's why I reckon we're so tired, and bereft.
In the haze, I'm leaning on gestural pleasantries with strangers. A wave at the garbage man. A wide berth for the man walking his two small dogs filling the pavement. He said thank you. I've found warm quick smiles shooting back to me too. Like there's a magnetism for the smile, that universal thing.
Call me a ham, but I've always liked Kelly Clarkson. She's a great singer, and has become someone who appears to not be shit. Anyway, she's stuck in a cabin in Colorado(?) with her small family, and has been singing in her bathroom on Instagram. Kenny Rogers died the other day -- don't know if it was the virus -- and, Kelly paid tribute to Dolly Parton's tribute to Kenny and then sang a cover of a Kenny song and then talked for a few minutes after and then after about 10 minutes said "Ha, ha! You just wasted 10 minutes!"
I took lots of pictures today. It reminded me of when I worked at Flickr, when insta-pics was almost a performance as a member of staff. So, allow me to perform on my tiny home stage for you now.
OH. I ALMOST FORGOT. Today I made FLATBREAD and I felt like fucking Gandalf or Bear Grylls or Xena or something. It's so easy and you can do it and you don't have to go to the shops. Here's the recipe (thanks Matt):
150g plain yoghurt
150g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
mix together
knead for about a minute
leave for about 15 mins
cut into golf ball size chunks
roll flat -- really flat is better
put a bit of oil in a hot pan
fry!
eat!
I was going to do a shop today, but instead, I decided to stay at home, and think a bit about that... staying, and not just going because someone said I could go to the shops if I wanted. I tried to sit down to work after the family call (where my nephews showed up and that was nice), but I couldn't settle. (I settled at 18:30, turns out.) I made a frankenhash for lunch, which was tasty but undeniably weird.
In the haze, I'm leaning on gestural pleasantries with strangers. A wave at the garbage man. A wide berth for the man walking his two small dogs filling the pavement. He said thank you. I've found warm quick smiles shooting back to me too. Like there's a magnetism for the smile, that universal thing.
Call me a ham, but I've always liked Kelly Clarkson. She's a great singer, and has become someone who appears to not be shit. Anyway, she's stuck in a cabin in Colorado(?) with her small family, and has been singing in her bathroom on Instagram. Kenny Rogers died the other day -- don't know if it was the virus -- and, Kelly paid tribute to Dolly Parton's tribute to Kenny and then sang a cover of a Kenny song and then talked for a few minutes after and then after about 10 minutes said "Ha, ha! You just wasted 10 minutes!"
I took lots of pictures today. It reminded me of when I worked at Flickr, when insta-pics was almost a performance as a member of staff. So, allow me to perform on my tiny home stage for you now.
OH. I ALMOST FORGOT. Today I made FLATBREAD and I felt like fucking Gandalf or Bear Grylls or Xena or something. It's so easy and you can do it and you don't have to go to the shops. Here's the recipe (thanks Matt):
150g plain yoghurt
150g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
mix together
knead for about a minute
leave for about 15 mins
cut into golf ball size chunks
roll flat -- really flat is better
put a bit of oil in a hot pan
fry!
eat!
Also -- and this is spectacularly immature -- the thing I liked best from the internet today is New Zealand Decking Advert.