Overdose

I rarely dream, or rarely remember them, so to wake up mid way through one was unusual for me.

Even more strange was to be convinced it was Christmas day and I, somehow, how forgotten to get my parents presents. I lay there with feelings of guilt and stupidity washing over me. Just how could I let this have happened ?

Perhaps I’ve been doing one too many Beechams All In One Pocket packs for my cold because, as we both know, it was just a dream ….

Grasshoppers..

After a morning of conference calls and night of being awake with a cold I needed some escape so I headed out for a walk.

At what used to be Aussie Paul’s house down the road the South African waiters from the Italian restaurant in the town were clearing the house ready to leave. I can remember when a foreign accent used to be a rarity around here.

With less than an hour for lunch I wandered over to the deserted allotments. The first frost of the year was still covering some of the leaves in the shade but in the sun the blackberries were still growing and the grasshoppers still singing.

The weather this year seems to get stranger and stranger ….

Warning ...

All I managed today was to sleep, lounge on the sofa and watch films. Not a bad way to spend the day aside from the fact that I didn’t feel great. It seems to be a warning not to get so bound up by life at work and to step away from issues where I can.

For now, it’s time to sleep, again …

Bistro

Beside me, in the river, a goose glides by; “he’s lost his mates”, says K as we sit outside at the Bistro on this warm Autumn day.

Looking back along the riverfront the sun glints on the water as people stroll along leisurely and starters arrive. Pate for K and crevettes for me, a paler pink than the crayfish I’d eaten in Sweden but still wonderfully tasty and served with aioli and asparagus.

A narrow boat drifts by with a man at the helm, a glass of white wine in front of the tiller.

The main courses of steak and lamb rump take a little longer to consume and the sun appearing around the edge of the Bistro encourages to sit a little while longer but eventually we rise and walk along the riverside.

Back at home it is just warm and light enough to sit out and read The Bookseller of Kabul, watch the last of the sun light the bricks of the houses and try a first experiment in using Photoshop to reproduce Lomography.