Woke up early this morning at around five fifteen. My first thoughts were that instead of steak, I would have pork escalopes with blue cheese sauce and pommes de terre sarladaises for tonight’s tea. Note my natural writing style would have said pommes sarladaises but that would have been misleading so I changed it. Only realised when I checked on the sbelin of sarladaises. Obvious really!
I know those were my first thoughts because I made a point of remembering them in order to write them down. I hardly ever remember dreams themselves, as opposed to first thoughts which I also hardly ever remember 🙂
I picked up my liking for pommes de terre sarladaises when on holiday in Montaigu de Quercy last autumn where they regularly featured on local menus. V tasty I thought to meself. The first time I had them was at a cafe in some small hilltop town or village whose name escapes me but where I also bought a case of malbec.
My other recollection from that occasion was the observation that most of the other diners at lunch were British expats. Probs mentioned this before but turned out that 60% of the homes thereabouts were owned by such people. I did wonder what the attraction was. OK it was a beautiful area with relatively cheap housing, compared with the UK anyway, and cheapish wine, but there was bugger all to do and most of the inhabitants were old. You go there to die and the process is probably accelerated by boredom. And loneliness.
Anyway let’s move on. Today, according to my macbook, is a Saturday. Le laitier ne vient pas aujourd’hui as they would say in Montaigu de Quercy although I doubt they have such an individual there. We have a day of log moving and football watching ahead of us. THG will also start the day with her usual Park Run and I will not.
Feels as if I’ve already fast forwarded to night time. Liverpool will have comfortably beaten Brentford and Man City held to a stale one all draw at home to Chelski who finally start to find some form. Well you never know. Lincoln City will also have beaten Exeter at home in a mid table clash. Could even pop down to see them though probs won’t. As I think of it, I have a few jobs to do.
As you might know I have been away, in the Southern Hemisphere, and am now home. The trip is still fresh in the memory, partly because I’m not sure the body is totally recovered from it, yet.
I have a few observations. Firstly the weather here is not the same as in South Africa. Ok this is stating the bleedin obvious but it is what it is. Although we often complain about the weather here in the disunited kingdom I couldn’t live somewhere where it was nice and sunny all or most of the time. One can always pop over for a sunshine fix if that is your bag.
I like the fact that on some days we “have” to light a fire and sit in front of it reading, or knitting, whatever does it for you. Not sure I’d buy a house without an open fire, not that we have any plans to move.
The second observation is that our very excellent safari guide was called Jeremy and the tracker, Hendry. Today the team will be out in their truck with a new set of punters who will gaze in astonishment at the rich diversity of wildlife to be seen in the Kruger low veldt. The point is life goes on wherever you are in the world. I find this to be quite surreal. It is somehow like the light inside the fridge. Only on when you open the door. The safari in South Africa is only on when I am there otherwise it doesn’t exist. Same for everywhere else in the world.
As a person my whole life revolves around me and those close to me. This is something I came to realise a long time ago. We are all so insignificant and our time on this planet is so fleetingly short that you have to stay focused on what matters. Yes we can worry about global warming, do our bit even and some may have observations about conflicts around the world, famine and strife. I pay politicians to handle this sort of thing. It’s what floats their boat, regardless of what you might personally think about that/them.
My final observation, for now, is that I hear movement upstairs. It is time to make a brew 🙂
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“Thought for the day” is on the wireless. Time to get up.
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I quite like putting pen to paper, metaphorically speaking. If I used a real pen and paper I’d need my hand amputating within days. I am painfully slow and pretty illegible with it. If I have a hobby, writing stuff is it.
I also like travelling but I feel as if I could throttle back on that a bit. Even doing it in comfort and style, travel takes it out of you. Also I’ve seen a lot of the world already. Doesn’t feel as exciting as it might have done at one time. The recent trip to the Kruger is an exception.
We do have biggish trip lined up this year, to the Paris Olympics and then Normandy. Me and THG, plus a few pals for the Paris bit. We also have a littleish trip to the Isle of Man for Easter. All good stuff.
What I’d really like to do is stop working completely and focus on writing a few books I have in mind. Trouble is I like doing what I do and don’t want to completely stop, at least not for the moment and so I can’t dedicate time to the books.