5am finds me eating my breakfast alone ... window open a crack because I think I just heard the first birdsong, coffee and toast next to the keyboard.
My throat is tight and heavy with this flu thing. I felt too miserable too sleep any longer and while I wouldn't say I'm terribly ill, I'm just not quite well enough to be happy either.
I've just been quietly reading my way around the blogsphere ... catching up on Kay's blog, taking a walk around my home city and getting a homesick for some Dunedin mist and drizzle in the process.
I spent some time over at Pam's blog, catching up with her life in a new home back in the States ... the same Pam who flew in from Austria and spent a couple of days with us a while back.
Erin , Veronica and Tara have all chosen sleep over posting this morning ... we share a timezone and friendship and it makes me smile when I realise I've spent time with all of these rather amazing women in real life.
It was good to find Kim the Canadian back, posting of her new house in Tirana and travels through Albania. It was reading her post that put the coffee thought into my head ... 'Boxes surround me now as I pull my laptop into bed and sip my morning coffee. I am truly happy right here .'
Today ... I'm photographing a reception at 11.30am and delivering a cd full of photographs, then perhaps we three ... my daughter, Miss Two and I will go city wandering.
Did I write that little Miss Two has renamed Gert's children?
It seems she has chosen names with a Finnish flavour and we've all begun calling them 'Itti' and 'Matti'. And no matter how many times you go over the real names with her ... she just smiles and says 'Kay', agreeing then calling out for 'Itti' to come play with her.
At one point yesterday, I looked up while talking Katherine, the woman who interviewed me, and there was Miss Two, running towards the lens of the camera man as he filmed the kids on the balcony. Both Katherine and Geert (the camera guy) ended up playing with her ...
Yesterday ended well. For the first time since crippling my laptop and turning it into the laptop requiring an external keyboard, I unplugged it and took it outside to the balcony.
I immediately began writing, like I used to before ... before I'm not sure when but released from the desk, I became Di the writer, again and it was a little delicious ... a glass of red wine, a warm setting sun, something like peace and the writing flow.
The horizon is glowing and sun's on its way ... 5.41am, Antwerpen, Belgie, on the other side of the world from home.
Tot straks.
A retraction: a reliable source informed me that Tara was up writing until 2am - I take back any implied criticism ;)
Another retraction: Erin checked in and I'm noting it here that Spanish taxes (ugh) and the paperwork for her visa renewal came between her and her blogging.
Yours sincerely
the demanding blog reader.
6 comments:
Guys - It's important that you know that right at this moment - at this very moment, Di sounds like sex on a stick. There are some upsides to a sore throat - at least for the listeners - YOU GO GIRL - WOOF!
Yes Belgium can be so nice sometimes. Poor you waking up at 5 am, that must be early. I know people who go to bed at that hour. Ahh well take care of urself.
MARK, you made me laugh so much that I posted this comment.
I was just out photographing an awards ceremony and one of the women I was talking to made the same comment. So I'm wondering if I should develop this larynx thing huh?
(Woof indeed ... !)
Belgie is lovely in the morning, then the highway sounds more like a New Zealand beach ... I can pretend ;)
Actually Manic, a p.s. to my previous reply ... I'm taking good care of myself. After photographing the receptie they fed me lovely food with plenty of red wine :)
Di, I do hope your infection won't be bugging you much longer, it can be a nuisance. But your caption "on the other side of the world from home" basically caught my eye. Reminded me of my former relationship and partner, "on the other side of the world from home".
I've moved on since, but did not manage to find that special one "I want to share my life with", although I'm not that difficult at all :-))
Anyway, I recently tend to avoid all invitations to gay marriages (feels like copycat behavior) or gay adoptions by male couples when the child is not their own offspring from a previous marriage, but I do miss having the company of that "someone really special". Friends can never take that special place. And yes, getting older has made that longing stronger lately.
BTW: My brother has children and also married a non-Belgian (I should have told you that a long time ago) She is now fluent in both her native language+ English and in Dutch (I'm not trying to bug you :). But she lacks many of the qualities you possess - proving once again that "having it all" is only for the lucky few.
Enjoy the sunny weather: there is rain predicted for Monday In Antwerp.
Hi Peter, I think I'm getting better, it's just the cough and the voice now, bedankt :)
I hope it wasn't too hard to be reminded of happier times although I did smile over your 'I'm not that difficult at all :-))'
I'd like to think I'm not so much 'difficult' as just 'unexpected'. Gert can never be sure what stories I'll come home with next and I often forget to talk these things over with him until after the deal is done :)
I do hope you find someone special one day soon. I get so frustrated when I read of the construct of age you discovered ... it seems so very very wrong and it irritates me when intelligence and experience aren't valued in the way that they should be.
Lol, everyone is better than me in Nederlands ... and my British, American and Italian friends will tell you that most people are better than me in English ;)
But thank you for your "having it all" is only for the lucky few.
It's true and to be honest, I've often weighed up what I would lose in the push to get fluent in Nederlands ... it's at least 12 class hours per week, add on over one hour to and from class ... my photography and writing would have been compromised and I love where they have taken me.
As for the predicted rain on Monday ... sigh, I told Gert and he said the sunshine had been a blocked weather pattern and now, it's possible that we might be stuck with 6 weeks of rain. It seems unimaginable.
Post a Comment