- I’ve been in Inverness for four weeks now, but I found good cake on the first day!
#priorities
- I’ve been going for morning walks along the river. In the mornings there are blokes fly fishing, standing in the middle of the river in waders. I never see them catch anything; I think they just like standing there. I also like watching dogs who’ve been let off their leads. They zoom straight to the steep banks, and when I look across from the opposite side it’s a series of zig-zagging hound shapes, snuffling up and down the slopes.
- Most of all I dig the spectacular trees that flank the river. They’re all yellow and autumnal, and sparkly with fairy lights at night.
Nighttime trees
- Do you ever wonder why humans find water so soothing? All crabbitness dissolves as soon as I get to the river. Why don’t I feel the same way about a tarmaced carpark or a brick wall? I guess water has been around for a long time and our brains evolved to find it pleasant. Maybe in a million years our tastes will expand and we’ll be fighting to buy houses with exclusive waste-dump or maximum security prison views.
- Chez Nessie has an abnormally small kitchen/living room. The movers actually laughed when they brought the couch in. “Where should we put this? Oh how about RIGHT DOWN HERE, coz there’s naewhere else!”. You can sit on the couch and just about reach out with your leg to switch the light on with your foot on the opposite wall. I dig that kind of energy saving.
- You’d think with the kitchen being right there next to the couch we’d stop arguing over who carries the plates to the sink after dinner or whose turn it is to make the tea. NO and NO.
- For almost ten years of togetherness, Gareth worked from home while I trudged off to work in the real world. Now revenge is finally mine! He starts brewing at 6AM most days, so while he stumbles around in the dark it’s my turn to open one eye and mumble faux-innocently, “Oh… is it getting-up time?” then pull the duvet over my head.
Morning walk
- Good bits of working from home: pajamas and radio. Bad bits: too many cups of tea. Rubbish office banter. About 45 steps per day on my Fitbit if I forget to move!
- Any other remote workers out there feel the need to overcompensate for their lack of bodily office presence? I am doing my work twice as fast and responding to emails like a demon. Whereas back in Dunfermline I would have spun around on my chair for awhile or revived the Isn’t It Funny How You Get Hungry Five Minutes After Eating An Apple conversation or made a round of tea before opening the inbox.