TheBanyanTree: Time out of joint

[Janice Money]

It's the Easter long weekend.  Paulo had Good Friday, Saturday and Easter
Day off but had to work today.  He thought nobody would turn up and he'd be
working from 9 to 11am.  Actually, lots of people turned up and, on top of
that, some Marines came to see how the centre is equipped.  So lunch was
delayed until just after 2pm.  After all these years we're used to eating
late lunches and dinners but what we can't get used to is the mess up of our
routine that public holidays cause.

 

At 4pm I was sitting here at the computer, trying to get interested in a
paper titled, "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False," so I can add
it to the log I have to keep of my CPD hours, and Paul was sitting watching
Bubba Watson win the Masters.  It felt all wrong.  I turned to him and said,
"I can't get rid of the feeling that this is Saturday."

 

"Don't worry," he replied, "tonight we'll have satay wings and watch Four
Corners and QandA and everything will be back to normal for a Monday."

 

"You and I are a good pair," he continued.  "We like routine and don't do
spontaneous."

 

"I can do spontaneous," I protested.  And then, unbidden, the thought came
to my mind, "As long as I have time to prepare."

 

There's a saying that the older you get, the more like yourself you become.
But I can't find a love of routine in my past.  Routine now feels more like
a lifeline; something to cling to keep your head above water, to not be
swamped by everything that has to be got through.  Not having to think about
what we're going to eat is one less worry, one less duty, a relief.  Every
so often I think how much I would like to start painting again, or to do
some silk-screening, or something creative.  But all I have time for is
these few words.  That's something.

 

Janice