0. I’m hot and clammy, unable to get to sleep. The water in the glass on my nightstand is cold and fresh. I love tap water in winter.
1. I feel better – perkier – than I have done in a few days but after deciding today should be another slow day, I stick to that plan. I crochet and read on the sofa. (I’m proved right about needing another rest day – a dog walk leaves me wiped out.)
2. The soup is the same orange as Heinz’ tomato but it is far from as bland: lentils, spices and a tang from yoghurt.
3. By coincidence, the infinity scarf’s loop is about the same length as my stripe pattern so one side of the circle is mostly two colours, and the other, the other two. I’d wanted more of a blend but as I tie it in different ways, I’ve got so many options now – different colours taking precedence as needed.
3b. As soon as I finish that scarf, I start on the next – or rather, start taking apart the one-before-last, the colour block scarf I made at the start of autumn. I’ve never been completely happy with it – I love the colours but it was always a little too wide, a little too short and the pattern a little … I don’t know, boring? I frog a stripe and rework it using a new pattern, on a bigger hook: it’s hardly complex – to the layperson it probably looks little different – but I love how it is bouncier, springer and fresher than its former incarnation. By bedtime, it’s nearly half way done.
3c. I listen to an audiobook of The Handmaid’s Tale and the repeated phrase ‘don’t let the bastards grind you down’ reminds me my first full time job – in the School of Classics at Leeds. I was the same age as many of the students – I had to take a day out of our departmental graduation preparations to graduate myself – and made friendships I didn’t value adequately at the time, so gradually let slip when I moved jobs. On my last day there, one friend gave me a small leaving present, a keyring with that little message. I used it for my work keys for years.
(For various reasons, I only stayed in Classics for six months but it was, by far, my favourite job from a social point of view: I had fun with not just the students but also many of the academic staff. I have a very fond memory of reducing an internationally acclaimed professor to helpless giggles over lunch one day and enjoyed the lamest scar comparison competitions [ie comparing paper cuts] with other notable academics.)
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