It has been a less-than-perfect day today. Starting the day at 5am was less-than-perfect to begin with. I didn’t mean to start it then, it just happened. I tried to make the best of it by taking a little time alone in the lounge, watching the sunrise and enjoying a piece of peace. But leaving DH in bed enjoying a day of holidays while I dragged myself off to work for a 9am lecture didn’t improve my mood any. The students who bothered to turn up to the lecture made it obvious that today they would have preferred to watch paint dry and write a reflective journal entry on the experience. My mental state lowered and I enjoyed the pleasure of self-pity and grumbling. I pulled myself into my office and made heavy work of whatever I could find to do, and wallowed.
All that was ruined for me by my aunt. She came in to work and we shared joy and light and love and very large coffees. It was a beautiful break.
The afternoon moved a little more quickly after that and I possibly even managed to achieve some stuff. Not much, but something. But I tell you, it was hard going.
At four o’clock I decided that I really wanted to go home and do some baking. And as I am on holidays from one of my jobs this week I decided I could spare the time. I went home and yes, did some baking. I made shortbread and pear crumble and I enjoyed every minute. Even the washing up.
DD rang up on a whim and DH and I sat in the cool of the evening on our balcony and had a chat on speaker phone before we started making dinner. Actually, I should give DH the credit. He made the dinner.
Then DH, DS and I watched a tiny bit of The Lord of the Rings while eating our dinner and shouting at each other that ‘the book is better!’ ‘the movie is better!’ ‘the movie is WRONG!’ ‘the movie is all the good bits and none of the boring bits’ ‘the books are subtler and the movie is a sledgehammer’ and so on and so on.
And now it’s eight o’clock, the long summery twighlight is darkening to a still evening and I feel relaxed and beautiful and like I am on holidays myself. All is right with the world and I am grateful for my family. And I think I am possibly going to be able to get up tomorrow morning and go to work. Maybe even with a slightly better attitude. It’s the perfect end to a less-than-perfect day and I don’t think I can ask for much more than that.