Les Lamas de l'Aubaine

Today is the awaited less-weathersome day, and I am flying to England this afternoon. As I sit here calculating how long I need to allow to get to the airport, and trying not to think of all the things I want to get done before I leave, it seems as if I have ages. Lots of empty time between now and the moment I disappear up the lane in a fading glow of rear lights, leaving Simon alone with the beasts and the burdens.

But I know, with unshakeable certainty, that however much time I have between now and the moment of my departure, when that moment comes I will be rushing around in a very unmindful and unbecoming manner, trying, at the last minute, to cram at least sixty minutes worth of deferred activity into a panic-ridden sixty seconds. Why? Why do I do that? Always. With such irritating predictability. Continue reading →

Today is another day, and the rabbits have changed their fur. Who knows why, but today I feel cheery, chilled and not-at-all-bored. My Wise Friend sent me a helpful email, reminding me about the importance of being in the moment, which is I suppose more like watching rabbits than chasing them. Definitely less tiring and much more entertaining. But I have also remembered that feelings, like rabbits, are unpredictable, can turn on a sixpence, and can be chemically induced. Continue reading →

After waking this morning very suddenly from a vivid dream (in which the car I was driving at a ridiculous speed hit a bump and took off high into the air, so that I knew with absolute, screaming certainty that I was about to die, and wondered what I should do in the few seconds I had left before I hit the ground) I was relieved to find that, not only was I alive and safe (and screaming) in bed, but it was Simon’s turn to get up early – which he already had done. Which also meant it was a chance for me to read a book at a time of day when I wouldn’t fall asleep after only two sentences. Plane journeys, and my alternate ‘mornings off’ are really the only times these days when I can do this (which makes me wonder why Simon and I insist on buying each other piles of books as birthday and Christmas presents). Continue reading →