The joys of heat, contracts and the last working day

Ah, the joys of central heating. It’s a miracle, you know, and so wonderfully warm in the flat. Bliss. Not only that but I think the plumber has improved the system at least 1000% by redoing the pipes and draining some of the blockages – so now our radiators are the hottest they’ve been in fifteen years (since we moved in, basically). It’s amazing really. So, at the moment we can either have the hot water/central heating on together or off together – the plumber will pop in either today or sometime between Christmas and New Year to add on the timer and do some extra tweaking and then it – like Mary Poppins – will be practically perfect in every way. Wonderful.

While we bask in these rare tropical conditions, here’s today’s meditation poem:

Meditation 30

A life is made
of the spaces

it inhabits:

the acts
undone,

the words
unspoken.

Let the empty air
claim you,

ease through the day.


And there’s going to be a lot of easing through the day today, I can tell you. There’s not a great deal happening on campus, though I’m still trying to add my own tweaks to my first pass through the Freedom of Information project, so the office has decided to go and chill out at Starbucks at 10.30 for a team meeting. Well, we’ve worked jolly hard this year – we reckon we deserve it. So coffee and mince pies, here we come.

In the meantime, I’ve posted my signed contract off to Eternal Press for Painting from Life, so I’m looking forward to getting my proverbial teeth into the edits they’ll want. There’s something hugely exciting about editing. Or maybe that’s just me?

Plus I had my last lunchtime stroll of 2008 round campus – always good to mark one’s territory before leaving it for a while. You never know what will happen when you’re away, after all … I do wonder what 2009 will bring in the world of academia. Something totally unexpected, no doubt. It usually is. And I’m not even thinking about the world of writing – that is indeed a law unto itself! Anyway, today my campus walk included a pied wagtail, tits of some description (couldn’t get close enough to tell and I don’t have my binoculars at work sadly), black-headed gulls, a robin, two squirrels playing hide-and-seek round a tree and – today’s birding surprise – a grey heron which flew in over the lake and stayed for a while. Fabulous. Obviously the World of Nature is gearing up to take over the campus while the people are away.

Tonight, I’m not doing very much of anything really, so that’ll be nice. And then it’s the holidays and great vistas of space before January comes round. Mmm, lovely.

Today’s nice things:

1. Central heating
2. Poetry
3. Starbucks
4. Posting off a contract
5. Lunchtime walks
6. The heron.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - winding down for the holiday ...