Mid-January or thereabouts

Early January is a lizard slumbering in the sunshine.  There is not a lot of action.

The arrival of mid-January heralds the passing of the holiday season, the end of the lizard’s slumber and a gradual return to the usual routine.

At the Queen Vic. Market, I discovered a number of stalls were closed in the dairy produce section, with no indication of when the stall-holders would be back.  The following week this had been remedied – someone must have complained.  No, it wasn’t me.

Some of my usual cafes are closed and I make alternative arrangements.  This is no bad thing, it happens occasionally I discover another new café, which is just fine.  

 I also have to make alternative arrangements for my shopping but I know it’s only for a short time, so I just get on with it.

Sitting at the overview here in the Trash Palace living-room I see action at the distant building site.  Ant like creatures in orange hi-vis vests have appeared again, walking back and forth along the top section of the construction site. The enormous crane, which has crouched, resting over the work break, rears up into the sky and begins its daily work of lifting and moving slabs of concrete.

The ex-Newsline crew get together for their annual lunch, at the usual place.  Helen and Rob entertain us with terrible tales but true about train travel in Egypt. The most disturbing part of the train travel was the unclean state of their sleeping quarters. Especially the curtains. The curtains were filthy and stiff with grime. Everyone in the travel group complained about their filthy curtains. The guide placated them with bottles of red wine.  Much laughter at our table about the magical qualities of red wine for immediately improving the appearance of filthy curtains.

More laughter from our group when they told us a week in Thailand was needed immediately on their return, to recover from the trauma of travel in Egypt.

Poor things, life is tough for world travellers.

I listen regularly to radio programs through the day.  Over summer the programs of Radio National revert to re-runs of popular programs broadcast through the year. If I’ve heard a program and liked it, I can listen again. Sometimes a program is a re-run and it is new to me.

 I sat listening intently to a recorded interview from a regional Writer’s Festival earlier in the year. This program was new to me.  The guest was Lemn Sissay, a British writer and broadcaster. He was speaking about his childhood in England as an adopted child. It was a harrowing story, of being passed around like a parcel. A wrapped parcel, one which might be unwrapped, the contents glanced at, found to be wanting, the parcel repackaged and passed on.  A  story bound up by the social attitudes, opinion and prejudices of the time.

Lemn Sissay speaks quite quickly and I had to pay attention in order not to miss a word.  Half an hour passed in the blinking of an eye and I knew I wanted to listen to this interview again. 

I really must clear all those photos off my phone and get the app which will allow me to listen back to broadcast of interest on Radio National.

And in this way the first two weeks of January passed.

Kyoto street scene                            April 2016