On Being A Slacker

I’ve been in a Monk-ish mode since last Tuesday when I went to the university for the publishing course - staying in (not difficult because the weather has been wet and dank), reading (good, because there’s plenty of it to do), and eating (always a favourite pastime). I did venture out to Morrison’s this afternoon. Sorry about mentioning Morrison’s so often, but it really can be a high point of the week, probably because it’s about nurturing and nourishing myself. Today I bought a free range chicken to roast for tonight’s Sunday dinner. I plan to stuff it with a whole lemon and some cloves of garlic, and once cooked, serve it with its juice on roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts and carrots. There’s still a splash of pino grigio in the fridge (half price at Morrison’s last week). Then I’ll stretch out on the sofa with my plate balanced on my belly and finish reading “Lark Rise to Candleford,” the autobiographical account of life in a quaint country hamlet at the turn of the 20^th century. Flora Thompson brings her childhod village alive and with such exquisite detail that it’s hard to put the book down. I do have to fight the odd twinge of guilt though, feeling like I should be doing something and not “wasting” time reading books. But it’s what I’m here to do, so I have to get over that one. If I want to feel REALLY guilty, I go to www.bbc.com/iplayer and watch a movie for free. What an escape that provides! A classmate of mine sent me the link and I’m indebted to her for that. There’s no TV in the flat (a good thing) so I visit the BBC on my laptop, which is great because I can stretch out and balance it between my belly and bent knees (like my plate of food!). It’s fortunate that I’m being forced out into the world tomorrow – at least it’ll necessitate being vertical.

I’m having a hard time finding anything exciting to write about, having not been outside for five days except to forage. So I’ll end this and consider it just a small missive after a fairly uneventful week, aside from some truly wonderful emails and telephone conversations with some friends and family. It really hasn’t been so Monk-ish after all.