A Quiet Monday

This morning I rolled out of bed before 8 a.m. again, a little worried that I'd feel sick later in the day because of a lack of sleep. (Last night I'd stayed up until past 1 a.m., reading the thriller Bad Cree, which is set in northern Alberta — Treaty 8 territory —, which I'd bought in paper form after seeing a television discussion of it on Canada Reads in March.)

But on the whole I've felt cheerful enough.

Waking up early was also justified: the painters rang the doorbell well before 9 a.m. They replaced window frames in Ge.'s bedroom and took out the windows of the pantry. To protect the pantry's floor, shelves, and contents from rainfall, they taped speckled grey painters' felt into the aperture. (Unfortunately, a wind has blown through the courtyard steadily since then, and dismantled their construction.)

Afterward, the wiry experienced painter came into the corner room to report on progress. It was his very last day of work!

We'd worried over the past weeks that we were the ones who'd 'broken' him to the point of retirement: he has vocally complained about being left to take care of the 40 window panes in our apartment largely on his own.

But he complimented us a bit diffidently this morning, saying that we'd been relaxed tenants to work with. 'They're not all like that!'

Mama told him that she wished him the best for his next phase. He looked a bit tentative and thoughtful.

Ge. later explained this enigmatic reaction: he'd heard that rather than retiring directly, the painter had found a new position instead.

I was kind of agog to hear what other tenants had been like...

***

In the meantime I read an old newspaper and finished Bad Cree. After the 1 hour fast after taking my morning iron pill, I ate a bowl of muesli with cocoa powder.

And since then I've finished listening to a non-fiction book about Burma/Myanmar, chatted with Ge. (Mama set off for university fairly early), listened to a short Greek news report about a politician who's been jailed in Albania for a while, and begun the Spanish language practice programme for today by writing out a conjugation table for the irregular verb ser.

My next fast read experiment, since I have at least 20 books in progress and it's a little much, will hopefully be Jennifer Croft's translation of Olga Tokarczuk's Flights. 

It's 28°C and sunny, but/and I've decided not to go outdoors until tomorrow. Yesterday was exhausting and, as mentioned, I didn't get the full quota of sleep.