F is exhibiting the symptoms of sleep deprivation. Straight-pipes motorbikes and rock-concert loud music continued until after 0330 this morning. We were rocketed awake several times by screaming sports bikes (pull in the clutch and red-line the revs) and people (male probably) who think back-fires are fun because they ricochet echoes off the buildings around our inlet. Why last night was worse than usual is anyone's guess.
I got a nice pate and croutons breakfast and here I am making sure she doesn't drown in her morning minerals drink.
There are people swimming in the sea again, but by the time she had pulled herself together there wasn't time for F to go swimming this morning. Plants got watered, lunches packed, cousins fed, rubbish picked up off the street in front of our building, and a load of 'refresh' laundry done and hung out on the clothes line at the back.
Under way... we pause to take a photo for Beau who has been testing sofas this week.
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| Taken through the glass... the colour is very slightly greener in real life |
Today a new fan - he has sat at his door and watched us pass his little estiatorio (they advertise 'home cooked food' here) every morning for months, and today asked us where we were going every day. He swings beads around his hand as he speaks to us. We pause in the next block to take photos for our Friday Nature Watch contribution. The locals (both human and feline) watch the mad foreigners with a mix of curiosity and pity. We really do look out of place. Who could possibly be that interested in a motley collection of trees?
Work is NOT normal. The 'London IT crowd' (whoever they are) have managed to upset everyone with another several layers of security imposed on how they access emails on their phones. Apparently it now goes -
fingerprint or pin,
fingerprint (again),
email address and password, and a
texted 6-digit random access code
Each of these stages is one or two screens worth of activity. The password is a mandated minimum 12 characters with symbols, capitals and numbers, and their email addresses are a long process to type in as well. There is a lot of moaning and grizzling. It won't make any difference, no one in London can hear them. (Probably just as well, some of it would fry their hairdos.) There is nothing like IT to guarantee an unhappy office it seems, but at least they are united in their unhappiness.
An IT contractor turns up to do something else and opens laptops all over the tables in the conference room. There is a lot of conversation with words like 'authentication failed'.
Skies darken and thunder rumbles. F went out at lunch time and came back with a lunch box full of capers. From there is was all downhill - I can sense she is fighting off sleep and there is still 3 and half hours to go.
Hari OM
ReplyDeletecrikey, I hope F gets some catch-up zzzzzztime soon! I love your zen pose, but I fear it might add to the soporification of the desk environment and not be conducive to F's productivity. Then again, the IT situation would act as a stimulant...Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Actually the IT situation just makes things worse. F has gone beyond being angry, frustrated and annoyed and simply pushes the off button and goes home. If she can't do the work she is supposed to be available to do out of hours because the tools don't support that work, then she has decided she is not going to lose sleep over that as well.
DeleteA box of capers, hm? Not sure it balances the night time racket and the IT antics, but it helps. As do you, calm Mr Zen
ReplyDeleteF's colleagues shop for shoes, clothes, over packaged food with posh labels, and F has identified all the market stalls, bulk suppliers, deli's, back street ethnic cuisine supplies - and..... and places to buy pickled capers in bulk for a fraction of the price paid for a jar in a supermarket. They know us now and know we bring our own lunch box for the condiments that they ladle out of big barrels. There we can also buy olives, dozens of different cheeses (some of them out of barrels too), different kinds of anchovies, charcuterie, nuts, beans, seeds ...... and not a scrap of plastic packaging between them - all straight into our own containers.
DeleteYou might stop your zenning and wake her up before she gets fired from the job. Oh Wait! only a few more days Right? we know about those bikes, for 2 week about 2 months ago, every night from 2 until 4 am there were three of them doing the same thing. I may have at one time said inside my head I hope they crash those things then thought if you think it is it bad? they did not just drive by, they ran the streets all around us with the gear changing thing, round and round and round. Bob heard NOTHING.
ReplyDeleteThere are times when Bob's state of hearing would be a bonus. We dream about blowing eggs, selling the holes with beeswax and filling them with red paint - then sitting out in the dark and bombing the noise freaks as they hurtle past our garden.... well F does.
DeleteOOPS Beau wanted to say he likes this sofa and it MIGHT BE AQUA enough for Mama to use it. Giggles about watching the silly foreigners. We can tell foreigners here by the voices chattering and we don't know what they are saying plus they are taking photos of OUR TREES. ha ha
ReplyDeleteF likes the sofas even though it is in a colour we couldn't fit into our decor. She likes the gold accents.
DeleteSome people can be so inconsiderate. I hope F manages to catch up on her sleep. Love the picture of you doing Zen :)
ReplyDeleteI'm very good at Zen.
DeleteLove the sofa. It would look awesome in a beach themed home
ReplyDeleteI hope you get some restful sleep tonight. Being sleep deprived is never a fun time
Minced beef is a perfect treat for a connoiseur like Mr Tigger. He deserves it. Bruno loves fish more than anything.
ReplyDelete