Slippage

Okay, I admit, there was a bit of slippage over the weekend. Friday night I sat up too late watching stupid things on television and thus didn’t wake up until nearly noon on Saturday. A friend visiting from off island was coming over at 4pm for a glass of wine and a catch up. The house was in need of a tidy, but no problem. I had four hours. Except I didn’t.

I took my cappuccino outside and sat on the deck. Checked my emails and Facebook on the tablet, then it all went pear shaped. Oh, what the hell, I’ll just have one game of spider solitaire before I start tidying. Ha bloody ha. I was still playing at 3:30.

When Peter arrived I told him he wasn’t allowed in the house, because it was a mess. He didn’t mind. We drank the wine and ate the snacks and chatted. Before he left, he asked if he could use the bathroom. Oh, no! He was going in the house. Oh, no! I hadn’t swept up the cat litter all over the bathroom floor. Oh, no! He’d see the rest of the house! But I said sure and told him had to pretend not to see the cat litter. He did. At least he didn’t mention it.

I vowed I would tidy the house on Sunday. (Yes, mañana.) That didn’t happen, not because there was more slippage, but because some copy editing, that needed to be done on a tight deadline, arrived in my In box. Fortunately, I was up at a reasonable time yesterday, so after breakfast I got tucked in.

The only problem was that I had a ticket to see a play at the theatre festival at three o’clock in the afternoon. At 2:30 I was still working on the first piece, one of the trickier ones. What to do? Skip the play? No, I’d paid for the ticket and I wouldn’t get a refund. Plus I was supposed to be meeting Peter there.

So, I shot down to the village to see Just an Ordinary Lawyer, a one-man show about Tunji Sowande, Britain’s first black judge, performed by Tayo Aluko. It was the only play on offer at this year’s festival that appealed to me at all. I agree with Michael Billington’s review (which I’ve just read) that it would have been good to have had more information about the challenges Sowande faced climbing to the top in the legal profession, but, as Billington says, it’s a minor quibble. Given that I’d never heard of Sowande, it was a fascinating introduction to the man.

Rushed home after the standing ovation, made a cup of tea, hoovered up a couple of hobnobs and got back to work at 5:30. At 9:30, feeling a bit faint with hunger, I packed it in for the day, sent off what I’d done and said I’d finish the rest today.

Woke up to a bonus: an email informing the work I’d done yesterday would suffice, so a free day. Except, it isn’t. I may have taken a break to write this, but today I am cleaning the bloody house.

Well, maybe a cuppa and another hobnob before I get back to it.