This morning you find me holed up in a corner of Wetherspoons - escaping from the world for an hour. I’ve just made a “small American breakfast” disappear, and am about to re-fill the cappuccino next to my phone.
Escape has become a theme recently. Escape from obligation, escape from expectation… escape from lots of things. It’s a temporary escape, but sometimes needed.
I’m writing this on Thursday morning, and it feels like the first proper “day off” of the staycation so far. That said, I still managed to have a shower, shave, and put two loads of washing through the machine before leaving the house this morning.
I should perhaps volunteer that I did battle with an enormous spider that had taken up residence in the dirty washing overnight. I think it ran across the bed last night - much to my other half’s amusement. I thought I saw it from the corner of my eye, but couldn’t find it after sitting bolt upright in bed. By “did battle”, I of course mean that I tipped the washing out, and then pulled each piece of clothing away one at a time until the spider presented itself - underneath the final shirt. It made a run for a clothes hangar on the corner of the bed - it’s probably still there. I’ll drop it out of the window later today - it can go terrorise the garden.
Thinking about the “things we do” on a typical day, I wonder what constitutes the minimum, before doing as little as possible becomes socially unacceptable? If I don’t have a shave and shower on a morning, I don’t feel awake. I would probably smell pretty bad too.
After leaving here, I’ll drop into the supermarket and buy enough coffee to keep the entire town awake for a few months - or myself for a day or two.
I’m not very good at escaping. Even while escaping, I’m thinking of things to do not just when I return, but on my way back. There’s always something to get, something to fix, something to fetch, something to take, something to do.
I wonder if Tibetan monks have a small army of helpers that scurry around doing everything while they sit cross-legged pretending to contemplate the universe?