Back to "work"

Yep, I'm back in the lovely Cambridge. I thought the plane had by mistake landed in Madrid, as there was this daze everywhere, the kind of wafty thin mist you get after a day of scorching heat, and all the batches of grass that used to be green were yellow.

The heat hit us in the face as we exited the plane - it was nine o'clock in the evening but it was still 28 degrees. At college, all the lawns have burnt. The bedders had closed my window so my room was almost like a sauna. I kept the curtains drawn all morning to stop the sun from shining right in. Actually, to be honest, there was no such conscious decision. I have the flu and so I stayed in bed until late, and even after I got up I didn't feel like doing any heavy household work like moving curtains.

In any salaried job, being healthy during your holiday and getting ill as you would need to go back to work would be a great thing. A few days on a sickie would extend your holiday and in case you'd spent yours abroad (or at home), they'd help you slowly adapt to the climate (or, in the absence of one, the current weather) and the surroundings before having to start working for real. But, for me this means that I will miss one of the conferences I was supposed to attend this summer. Four hours in a train tomorrow, when the temperatures are expected to stay as high as they are now, no thank you. Giving a presentation while coughing my lungs out and having to blow my nose every 30 seconds, no thank you. Writing the presentation today when feeling like shi'ite (in Lebanon) no thank you.

So, I made a trip to the grocery store and stocked up on soft drinks, tea and juices (need the liquid) and ice cream (need to cool down). And also some food even though I don't feel hungry at all. I had many things I wanted to write about but I'll leave them for later. I think I hear the CSI DVD calling. And those raspberries I bought when autopiloting through the aisles of Sainsbury's. Mmm...

(Pic: Zina Saunders)