It’s far too early in the morning, even for me, in fact, it’s probably not even morning. It started just before two when I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and having wondered how I got there, decided it must be time to get up.
It wasn’t. I might have started on the wrong side, but I didn’t get out of the wrong side (well, I did. I had to but…) and I don’t feel tired or grumpy at all. Not yet. I do feel as though I have no idea what to write about as I get my writing head in order, so, let’s just see what comes out.
First, I thought about shopping, not that any of the shops would be open at two in the morning (as far as I know), but for some reason, I remembered I’d taken a photo in our local supermarket and meant to share it a while ago, so it’s here today. Then I remembered something I’d said to the husband when we were talking about what shopping we needed when he was going because I was working. ‘Can you get some talcum powder? It’s usually next to the batteries.’ This reminded me of when someone needed some washing-up liquid, and I told them they would find it in the wine and spirit section because it’s that kind of shop. If you want to see island life at its best, go to one of the village super markets (sic) because they offer a great eye-opening experience – and decent prices if you shop around.
After a look at the news, and half a cup of tea on the balcony, I thought I should get to my writing corner and get on with the day/night. There was not much to see from the balcony anyway; the harbour lights, the stars, a bat or two (or a couple of very small nightbirds traveling at speed), so off to the office I go, stopping to see what temperature it is outside, just out of interest, and finding it to be 28°, not bad. I always turn on the porch light when commuting from the living-in house to the workhouse. Although the streetlight outside the gate lights the courtyard and porch reasonably well, I like to scare away anything that might be scuttling or crawling around outside the front door, particularly as I’m usually barefooted. There was no scuttling or crawling today, I am glad to say.
And so, the morning routine began.
A check of the emails via Mailwasher where I generally receive a heap of pre-marked spam offering me all things vital from loft insulation to Thai brides, and a download of those emails I actually need: daily news updates from an ex-journalist friend (scandal and sensation, end of the world stuff, things you couldn’t make up), and I switch on all the programs I will need for the morning. The PC protection comes on automatically and tells me my VPN needs renewing when I only renewed it three days ago, so I enter the activation code, and it still won’t activate, so I sign in, and fiddle about, and finally it works. There is always some such disruption before my day has even begun, but today, it was only a brief one.
Then I sit down to write something here, and this is what you get, and I scroll through my gallery wondering, apart from typos, what I can adorn the page with today, and I find photos of a cactus. Well, the Cactus Hotel in Rhodes, actually, where we stayed in May when I took the godson over for his English proficiency exam. Very nice it was too; huge room, great view, breakfast even bigger than the feast at the Plaza (and HP sauce in bottles – five-star treatment, I’d say), and right next door to the exam centre. I thought I’d post a view from the room. This isn’t the first hotel I’ve used in Rhodes this year, and I must tell you about the others sometime because although they were further out of town by about ten minutes as the foot walks, they were excellent. (Btw, I believe all the students of the English school passed their proficiency exams this year, I know the Gson did brilliantly.)
But that’s for another day, and mine is now about to start for real with around six thousand words about to pour from my fingertips into various projects. I’ll probably get about half of them done before I have to return to the right side of the bed and catch up on a few minutes of sleep, and start the second shift later this morning.
