A fresh dawn

This morning I woke up, back in the Windsor hotel, and I felt as though it was all a dream. After all, the sun rose the morning I departed from Christchurch and did not set again until my return. And so it feels unreal and will forever, I think. I am glad for a record to prove I was there, else in my dotage I will doubt it for sure and my grandchildren will never believe the truth of it.

After breakfast, I went back to sleep, did my laundry, and took an incredibly long and wasteful shower. Ahhhh, hot water! Ahhhhh, a razor! Ahhhhh, cleanliness! There is nothing like being clean after a long, long journey.

I went for a walk in the botanical gardens and they felt like the morning after a spring rain: shining, clean, refreshed. Actually, maybe it's I that feels this way, and not the gardens...

At 6 or 6:30 this evening I was to meet Bob Paulos for dinner since my brother and boyfriend weren’t arriving until the next morning, and Bob wasn’t leaving until the next afternoon. So I walked early over to Baillie’s’ and read outside by the Cathedral, thinking I would surely see him come walking by. But I never did, so eventually I went in, walked around the restaurant, didn’t see him, picked a table outside and ordered some fisn and chips. I ate slowly, enjoying the sounds of the street and watching an incredible fight between two seagull clans, thinking Bob would show up eventually. But he never did. So in the end I paid my tab and went in to stop in the ladies’. And who did I see? Bob. He had looked around for me, couldn’t find me, and ate by himself at the bar! How silly! So we went for drinks instead.

Ah, the easy mundane things you take for granted. Drinks at a bar with beer from the tap. Choices for meals. Fresh vegetables. Unknown people walking around. Skirts and sandals. Children’s laughter. Sunrise, sunset. Water while brushing your teeth. So ends the part of my journey where I learn to appreciate the tiny things. Tomorrow the Tims join me and we undertake a new adventure. I bid you adieu and, finally, a good night!

AdventuresinPhysicsland23