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Monday 15 October 2012

Simply A Moment: October 2012

Last month, I took part in Alexa's Simply A Moment Challenge (you can see my post here). And what do you know? All too quickly, it's come around again. And at the last minute, I managed to sit and be still for a moment and record what was going on around me.




The text isn't very clear in the photo above, so here it is in full...


Monday
15th October 2012
07.05 p.m. 

I’m lying on my sofa, with my pad and paper, having just enjoyed a nice hot bath. I stayed in just a bit longer than normal and didn’t give myself enough time to dry off properly. I’m still feeling slightly wet under my clothes though I am pleasantly warm from the heat.

I’m wearing my round-the-house comfort clothes. Black tracksuit bottoms, burgundy jumper, and woolly walking socks (I wear these instead of slippers, which I refuse to wear and look like an old man, even if I do suffer from cold feet).

Nick is now in the bathroom upstairs and all is quiet. There is no TV on, nor the radio. I can hear a plane overhead, a car door slam, a bus going by and then, when all the commotion outdoors comes to an end and quiet returns, I hear the gentle ticking of the clock on the fireplace mantel. There’s also a faint ringing in my left ear.

My attention turns to the sofa I’m sat on. It’s the right depth to snuggle into, the reason I chose it. The cushions are all misshapen, as we stopped plumping them up every night. We do it now and then and put up with it.

Dinner is already made and in salad bowls on the kitchen top. I stripped last night’s chicken and popped it into the fridge earlier on. I chopped up tomatoes and tore some basil leaves into our dinner bowls before sprinkling over some olives. I tore up a couple of mozzarella balls and dabbed the pieces around. All I need to do before serving is to add the chicken leftovers.

My thoughts stray back to this afternoon and a trip to the vets. Our cat, Basil has a skin complaint, an allergic reaction and he’s been plucking his fur away and licking it raw. So I called up this morning and made an appointment for him.

The vets had more animals in their waiting room than usual and it freaked our sensitive animal. He was not a happy cat. The vet gave him a couple of shots and I carried him back to the quiet of the car while Nick waited for the prescription and paid up. Since our return, I’ve been spoiling the patient. He’s had a good serving of the remaining chicken and plenty of cuddles from both of us. And before settling to write my moment, I let him out into the garden. I shall stop now and go walk over to the French Windows and let him in again.


And that was my captured moment for the day. It'd been a better story if I had remembered to do this whilst in the vets, with lots of sensory information all around me. Plenty of sights, sounds and smells to record. In fact it would have had a similar tone to my time at YSP. But the fact is, I chose a moment when the house was quiet and I wasn't doing any activity. That made the exercise even more of a challenge.

I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's moments, who join in, when they are blogged. Last month it was fascinating to learn just a snippet from other's lives. Such is the joy of blogging and scrapbooking. Thanks Alexa for the challenge.

Px

6 comments:

Justie said...

Like the design of your "simply moment" piece... Looks like you had a busy but calm quiet day.

alexa said...

This is such a beautifully presented page, Paul, full of atmospheric writing - the concreteness of the detail makes it all the more vivid. I do hope Basil recovers soon - with all that spoiling, I am sure he is bound to! I understand about the slippers - I've got a chunkily knit pair of Totes so I don't slip and break something! :)

Miriam said...

Visiting from Alexa. Im glad you didn't write about the vets today because I just love the feel of your quiet moment. It has made me feel calm before what will be a very busy day. Hope Basil is well soon

Cath Wilson said...

Poor Basil - hope he's better now? My brother's dog had an allergy like that but they never found the cause - he lived on steroids all his life. You're good at this - you really ought to write x

Irene said...

Your quiet moment has great depth and worth the challenge of digging deeper. I really like the way you have displayed your page and the colours you have used.

Ginger said...

I enjoyed reading your quiet moment. I hope Basil will be better soon, I have two of them and one has lots of food issues and the other I will only take to the vet if it is an emergency - she has been known to bite the technicians!