Snail's Pace

Apologies to all for the recent lack of activity. I have recently uprooted the family and moved far, far away. Well, maybe just a time zone's difference.

In any case, in the madness of packing and unpacking, I lost my ADSL modem/router and therefore have been Internet-less for the last two weeks.

It's amazing what moving into an empty house, with no 21st-century conveniences can be like. While waiting for the moving van to arrive, I had a week with no kettle, fridge, or (even worse) television or internet. I was most upset that I had missed two episodes of 24, and at the lack of a nice hot cup of tea.

The upside is that I am much better at the Cryptic Crossword than I used to be, and I got plenty of sleep, what with having no screaming children, work, or really anything to do after sundown for the better part of a week. It was a bit like being on holiday on a beach resort, except that there was no beach, resort-style entertainment, or service of any kind.

However, it's all hands back on deck now, and back to normal programming soon.

It does make me think, though... if or when you finally manage to get away from it all, how do you occupy your time? The sudden lack of unexpected phone calls from hospital wards about inane matters, the disappearance of the need to be somewhere five minutes ago, the magical ignorance of the piling electronic and physical in-box. Do you find that you can do all the things that you meant to do but didn't have time, or that you realise that none of those things really mattered, and you are struggling to find something to waste your time with?

I know where I was for the last two weeks.