Ways of escape

I don't know how other blippers choose titles for their posts; I feel I've been influenced by teaching English (Miss! What can I call this ...?) and by writing poetry (poems need titles) and by echoes that I often have to look up to find their origin. That's how today's heading swam into my consciousness: it's the title of Graham Greene's second volume of autobiography and it sits, somewhere, on one of my bookshelves.

And goodness, today was a day from which some escape was a crying need. I've just locked the front door as usual, and it's my habit to open it before locking up, to take a last look at the night - for recently the sky's not been quite dark. This evening the wind was so strong that the door almost broke my wrist, and the door glass was covered in rain which it would appear is still falling. And it's been so cold - partly, I think, because indoors was actually warm enough (all that insulation) for the heating not to come on, with the result that I've been chilly for hours. Partly, of course, it could be because I didn't get much exercise ...

So what was I doing? I poached some fruit. Then I decided that Getting Away - because I'm planning on just that tomorrow - was such a novel idea that I needed to give it some thought today. So I got out the case I bought for travelling on the Orient Express, which I last had with me on a cruise as a little extra case, and thought about what ought to go in it. And all the time I was doing this I was realising how badly I've been affected by all this hibernation. I last went away from home for a week in September, but in normal times I'd have had Christmas with family, perhaps a couple more visits to them, a holiday in October and another in February, a few days away singing in Cumbrae in Holy Week ... even Synod, which I talked about yesterday, is normally held in Oban and I go for two nights to an atrocious hotel and have jollies to make up for it. Now I can't even think what clothes I wear if I'm seeing other people indoors. And is there still toothpaste in my toilet bag ...?

My only outing was in the car, back up to the church to re-do an unsatisfactory recording and practise a bit for Sunday. Singing is quite hard work, but not enough to compensate for not getting a walk - but I lacked all motivation to battle with the wind and rain and settled for returning home to the computer. 

Blipping the case that brought about all that introspection. It looks strangely cheerful outside, because everything's so green, but don't be fooled. The wind is from the north-west; the spare room window faces south-west. I'd suggest you should also avoid being fooled by the apparently tidy room - I chose my angle carefully.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow ...