Fading fast

We're 3 floors above where we were during our last stint in the Towers, and that means there's no need to venture any higher for good sunset light. We had plenty of time to contemplate the evolving light (see also the extra of Taivallahti), as we were in and out of the flat numerous times to head down to the basement laundry with our six loads of washing. One advantage of having  industrial scale laundry facilities in the basement, however, is that you can dispose of that amount of washing quite quickly. Virtually everything is now washed and dried, although there's still a fair amount of ironing to be done. Having to go to the basement to do laundry (and having to book 'slots' in advance) is rather more tedious on a week-by-week basis, when you don't have as much flexibility to stay on top of the washing as you do when you have your own washing machine.

Lest you think that doing laundry has been the highlight of our day, let me refer you to Mr A's blip. Yes, we've already been to Regatta. As it's been cold for a few days, the bays are starting to freeze, but there is a long way to go before there's anything like a 'big freeze'. It's colder, and has been consistently so for a little while, than before we went to SE Asia, but it's by no means bone chillingly cold (yet).

The trip to Regatta was itself subsequent to my usual Wednesday gym session, which involves half an hour on the cross trainer and then a Pilates class. I discovered to my surprise that despite having stuffed my face during the holiday with all manner of SE Asian delicacies (not to mention a fair amount of wine, beer and indeed cocktails), I appear to have lost a further kilo. I'm off to M&S tomorrow in the attempt to source some more trousers that fit. At the moment, the only trouser-like garments that fit are the two pairs of shorts procured in Singapore (not really the weather for it), some leggings for doing sports, and one pair of walking/skiing trousers I bought online during the autumn. Everything else varies between being a bit baggy and epically baggy.

Jetlag is a bit of an issue. I was awake by about 2.30am, and eventually we both gave up the unequal struggle at 5am. We were breakfasting by 5.30am, and by about 7.45am almost all of our belongings had been squirreled away. As a result, I'm now fading fast (6.30pm), and expect to be in bed not too late. I have read somewhere that your body only adjusts an hour a day to abrupt time zone changes, and I'm sure that's true. It took me most of a week to adjust to the change to Singapore (6 hours ahead of here), so it will take a similar amount of time to adjust back from Bangkok time (5 hours ahead of here). When we went to Sydney a couple of years ago for about 5 days I never adjusted, and had severe issues at both ends feeling that the day was upside down. This was exacerbated by going to Boston a few days later.

Anyway, I'm perfectly cheerful about being back here and back at work. I didn't try doing anything too intellectually exacting today, but I've cleared out my inbox and listed everything that needs doing in the next few days, and expect to be up and running properly tomorrow.