The Landlady gets holiday envy

I’m back from Norfolk and – in spite of the travel chaos – managed to get back to Brighton exactly on time. I didn’t quite finish the book, although got so close to the end that I’m now attempting to write it here in Brighton, where there have already been way too many distractions.

This morning, I got up at 7am, shepherded The Small Daughter onto the bus, went out running and did a bit of work. I had breakfast at 9.30am, intending to start work at around 11am – I find that giving myself too much pressure has a negative effect – but, just as I opened my laptop, saw that my friend B was online. Now, my friend B who, like me is a bit of a ‘portfolio worker’, has all the benefits of a sporadic work schedule, but has more freedom than I, as she has no Small People to shepherd onto buses in the morning. She has therefore taken the depressing darkness and gloom of January by the horns, and had disappeared off to Thailand for five weeks. Five weeks! Most of my holidays are only five days, although I realise I’m lucky to be able to go on holiday at all.

“She panned round with her iPhone to show a blur of tropical palms”

Anyway, B was online so we Skyped. Me sitting in my running gear and a hoody, in bed with the electric blanket on because my house is so cold. B, who I haven’t seen since the day before she left three weeks ago, looked brown and healthy. I noticed, green with envy, that she was wearing a halter-neck bikini and a sarong, because she’d just been in the hotel pool. She panned round with her iPhone to show a blur of tropical palm trees, bright sunshine lighting up the hotel reception. Bah! She had, she said, been diving on an island for the past three days and was thinking about going to Cambodia for a bit. I, on the other hand was wrestling to make the decision whether or not to go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Furthermore, B had heard all about the winter weather back in Blighty and was thinking of changing her flight and not coming back for another month. As I stared gloomily at my laptop I surmised that the book could wait for another hour, so I went in search of heat and had a sauna and steam at my gym. At least I’m off to Gambia again next week, where I will be able to exact Skype revenge on my friend B from the bar at the Tropical beach motel where we stay…