Thursday 15 December 2022
I am in phase IV of what seems to be the identical cold I had a month ago. It started with a sore throat, then a bit of a sniffle, then a cough for about twenty-four hours, and now I’m left with a bunged-up head, which is the phase when I feel most sorry for myself. Neither version was particularly bad, but I don’t think I’ve ever had two identical colds a month apart before.
Yesterday, bearing in mind phase IV, I went out for an unusual walk. I had wanted to use my car so decided to drive about nine miles to a Tibetan temple complex (as you do, in the middle of nowhere in Scotland). It was quiet, peaceful and delightfully other-worldly. I felt calm and content and the scenery, as always, was beautiful. I arrived home at around 13:25, knowing Chris would be doing a Zoom presentation. The front door was locked. I have adopted the Scottish approach to door-locking, which is not to lock doors during the day. Chris has maintained the London approach, which is to keep doors locked at all times. The little [expletive] had locked me out, not noticing my front door key in its usual place indoors. I had had plans for my immediate arrival home. Instead, I had a wander round the garden, sat on a bench until I got cold, wandered, stood in a patch of sun. For about thirty-five minutes, I was left outside. Very unusually for me, I got cold, particularly my hands and toes. I was extremely cold and grumpy by the time he let me in and feeling incredibly sorry for myself.
After I warmed up, I continued painting the bed frame. Overall, I’d say it’s not looking how I’d envisaged it, but there’s hope it’ll look okay. I haven’t painted anything for a while so maybe I’ve forgotten how paint in the tin looks considerably different to how it looks after the first coat, then the second coat, and, with one colour (a very bright, dark purple in the tin), how good it does actually look after three coats (a very dark plummy-brown, ‘Christmas pudding’ being its name; I’d expected more of a brown-brown, but it does look darker on coat three, as you can see on the three vertical planks). So far, all the other colours are looking significantly brighter (ie a bit gaudy) than I’d envisaged.
After the revelation that my fancy second-hand office chair is far too high (and seemingly non-returnable), the plan B for using it is working out incredibly well. It is indeed very comfortable and from my high vantage point, I can get a lovely view of hills, trees and birds at the neighbour’s bird table. There is hope for the mis-purchase. Still no desk. Apparently tomorrow. I am not at all holding my breath.
I had a very old book press in storage and yesterday’s ‘tidy one area’ entailed giving it a bit of a clean and making it into a two-shelf bookcase for some of my old books. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but now I think it looks okay, certainly better than leaving it unused and with an empty void in the centre.
For today, other than writing/work, a walk, more bedframe-painting, writing Christmas cards that I can post when we go out today, as I haven’t read a book since we moved here and, as I’m not feeling great (ie I’m feeling sorry for myself rather than bad symptoms), I might actually read for a bit.
