Leaving the hermitage

[montfelisky]

I was catsitting for a friend since the 28th of December until yesterday, which was two and a half weeks of glorious solitude. My dad picked me up yesterday evening and I am spending a few days at their flat by the sea and then returning to London tomorrow evening. It has been a really nice little interlude away. I got a bit spooky at night - I've never really liked being in a house on my own at night, compared to being in a flat (which is fine) - but the days were just so restful. I was working from her husband's study overlooking the garden and every so often I would turn around and there were two round furry faces watching me because the cats like to sit quietly in whatever room I was in and would follow me patiently around the house as I made tea, did laundry, etc. 

There was a brief spell last week with no internet. They got the lawn aerated on Wednesday and it turns out the man aerating it also aerated the phone cable, so I ended up going into the office on Thursday rather than hotspotting from my phone, but then the engineer came on Friday and ran a temporary line up to the house which has been working just fine. It was funny, because when the internet first went down I was trying frantically to fix it and feeling very fretful about being on my own with no internet and no Netflix, but as soon as I found out it was beyond my power to fix, a tremendous calm descended and I just got on with reading books and watching DVDs.

I spent last weekend going on two deliciously long walks along the river and catching up on all my voicenote correspondence. There is something very luxurious about going for a long walk somewhere pretty and listening to voicenotes from friends. 

I have been easing my way into reading again. I finished reading Anne of Avonlea (a re-read) while I was catsitting and have just begun Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, which has been one of the chonkiest books on my fossilised TBR pile, so reading it will feel like a tremendous achievement. The blurb definitely sounds like my sort of book but I generally don't get along very well with books from the Man Booker list, which is such a statement to be making, and yet it is a statement of truth.

And apart from that, my life is applying for training contracts and hoping for success on that front. 

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

This sounds like a delightful way to spend a couple of weeks (although I'm with you on feeling uneasy alone at night in houses in way I never feel in flats), and I'm glad you had a mostly relaxing time.

Good luck with the training contract applications!

[montfelisky]

It's very strange, isn't it? I was talking to a friend about it and how strange that I don't feel nervous walking around at night outside, but the moment I go into an empty house I feel hyper alert, even though the house is probably safer. There is just something about it which feels fundamentally spooky.

Thank you!

[kudryavka]

intrigued to hear how you get on with A Little Life...I had Opinions about it lol. Good luck with your applications!

[montfelisky]

Oooh I shall let you know! I am enjoying it so far, but it is an Extremely Large book, so not anticipating finishing it quickly at my new incredibly slow reading speeds.