25 April 2011: Local Girl

Zzzzzzz

One of the best things about this vacation so far is that I’ve been sleeping!  Now, you might thing that sleeping is no big deal; however, I suffer from terrible bouts of insomnia.  The last time that I had a few consecutive nights of restful sleep was February.  Since then, I’ve had one night of a six- or seven-hour sleep followed by a week or more of two- or three-hour snoozes.  Having so little sleep really takes a toll when you add in the fact that I work every single day of the week for months at a time and then on top of that, toss in family stress.  So this past week of sleeping and sleeping and sleeping has been absolutely wonderful.  I don’t even feel guilty for sleeping in so late today; even though it got in the way of taking that walk.  Well, there’s still tomorrow.

Bowling Green

I did get outside to walk to the village shop where I purchased a pain au chocolat, apple juice, an orange, an apple, a Coke, a slice of ham and a newspaper (as I’d run out in starting a fire each night in the woodstove).  Yvonne was there(off-duty) with her husband in the café; we chatted for a few minutes and I had a snack and did some Internet surfing before I went up to the register to check-out.  Afterwards, I walked over and sat on a bench in the upper village green and watched two men playing bowls on the bowling green.  I’m not sure what the rules are for such a game; but when they prepare to bowl the balls, it reminds me of bowling back home.  No pins, though; so I’m not sure what the object is.  But it was gorgeous outside and so it was pleasant just to sit in the cool sunlight and watch them play for a long while.  Lots of families were out and about as there is a playground on the lower village green.  I cannot tell you how absolutely wonderful it was to sit there, watching the world around me, and breathing in that amazing flower-scented air.  I’m trying to drink in as much of all of this as possible since by this time next week, I’ll be back in the hot and miserable environment of Iraq. 

Dinner Plans

I stopped at the Great Western Arms pub on the way back to the cottage and confirmed my reservation for tomorrow’s Steak Night (a huge deal here in the village each week).  The bartender was a very nice guy and he said that he’ll introduce me to some local ale when I come in tomorrow.  Yippee!

Wedding Fever

The TV channels are now getting into the swing of things with the Royal Wedding coming up this Friday.  One channel tonight was showing all of the episodes of “Friends” where weddings took place; another channel was showing Royal Family documentaries all evening.  Stores are having sales, the news channels are going nuts, etc, etc.  It’s pretty neat.

Duh!

I started the fire tonight in the woodstove (this time without burning my hands!) and then went downstairs to run my bath.  Since there is no tumble dryer in the cottage and the neighbors have made full use of the drying lines outside, I set up a drying rack in the kitchen and hung my wet clothes off of it.  So while running the bath, I fingered the clothes to see how dry they were after being in the kitchen all day long (I’d done the laundry in the morning before I left).  They were still damp, dang it.  I stood there wishing that I knew of a way to get them to dry faster and then it hit me!  Why not take the drying rack and clothes upstairs and set them up in front of the woodstove?!  I could have just smacked myself for not thinking of this sooner.  So, up we went to the parlor and I got everything squared away and then went back downstairs to take my bubble bath.  Once that was done, I went back up to the parlor, checked on the clothes (which were very nearly dry now), added another log to the fire, and curled up on the settee and read my book for a while.  It was so nice!  And now, here I am: upstairs in bed and wishing that I didn’t have to leave this lovely place.  This vacation has been exactly what I needed and I fully plan to return again next year if I am still working overseas at that time.