Reflections and Ruminations on Writing.

A quiet humidity, a breeze off the sea. The quiet in the middle of the night. The ripple of the water and the way the currents swirl across the ocean. The distant smudge on the horizon of what must be Sicily. Clouds that hover over the mountains, over the sea.

--

My tour companions here seems pretty nice. There's a few groupings already formed - several women who already know each other and some groups forming. A very energetic Puerto Rican whose personality bounces the whole group along, and

I ended up in a single room, because my intended room-mate came down with COVID and ended up going home. Which, ugh, it sucks for her, and I'm so lucky to have been able to take those three extra days in HK before joining the Georgia trip, hale and healthy. And I'm so relieved I took the extra time to recover in HK, and feel a lot better now, although still not an unthinking 100%.

Anyway, I have two women from the tour group in the room next to mine, and they're chatty and their voices carry, so I'm a bit jealous in spite of the solo room 'cos I hear them talking! I know, I know, hand in my 'introvert' card. I'm only 60% introvert, though.

Pictures in the next day.

Okay, so the bit where I'm falling down on the holiday is sleep.

Air-con is too much. Bed is too soft. Pillows are too hard. Not warm enough.

AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH

Last night, I woke up at 3:30am and...didn't really manage to get back to sleep until around 6am. And even that was only for about half an hour.

I'm travelling okay, though. COVID has cleared up, although I sometimes feel a bit stupid lately, trying to work out what I'm saying and how to say it, and thinking "I'm sure I used to know how to phrase this".

Anyway, it's nearly 11pm where I am.

Time for sleeeeeeeep.

I feel like I was better at this when I was younger.

Got a big dent in my self-assurance right now, and struggling: tired and a little anxious after this setback.

*sigh*

Next flight up in 18 hours...

I spent most of the day in the room, listning to an irregular rumble that never quite seemed to stop...

..around 5:30pm, I realised that it was the elevators.

I called down to the front desk and they promptly moved me...to a room at the back corner which smelled like it had previously housed a smoker. You're not allowed to smoke in the rooms, sure. But someone who smokes like a chimney had inhabited that room not too long ago, and I could smell it.

I called down to the front desk, they sent up housekeeping, who sprayed perfume through the room. Not helping! And then they moved me yet again - about four rooms along and there's no smell and no elevator rumble...

What a drama. And I'd slept pretty well last night. It was just during the day that I was listening to that rumble and thought at first it must be construction work, only to realise after hours that, no, it's probably the elevators.

Bad design, as my dad the architect would say.

At any rate, I'm moved again.

NOW can the drama be over? Please? Pretty please?

I'm feeling better still - more energy, but the slightly congested nose and throat again. I stopped taking the phenylephrine after last night. And looking through the drugs the doc gave me, there's an anti-histamine, and an anti-inflammatory, and when I tried taking the metformin (another anti-inflammatory) last night...let's just say it got unpretty.

Tonight and tomorrow is to make sure I'm back to (near-)fighting fit. I should have been in Georgia, by now, meeting the rest of the tour...

*sigh* Okay, no dwelling. Just resting.

Still feeling not-great, but ( medication is a wonder of the modern world and nobody can persuade me otherwise )