Last night I drew up a daily timetable, which included a moveable block of time for unscheduled events, and decided that I was going to stick to it. No matter what else happened, I was going to put a big tick in all those boxes before I finished for the day.
The first thing on the timetable was shopping, mail run, etc. All those dull but essential activities. No problems there. I ran into a friend I hadn't seen for ages, so we arranged to meet for lunch. Because I had added a block of discretionary time to my schedule, there were still no problems. Smart thinking, eh?
I hadn't anticipated that I might get a flat tyre as well. So after lunch I had to get that sorted. True, it didn't take long and I filled in most of the time by chatting to a fellow who had driven up in a huge and rather Heath Robinson-type vehicle that is almost certainly started by a swinging boot, bucket and marble. (Incidentally, I am now more aware of the hydraulics of large bits of agricultural machinery that I was before, so some good came of it.)
The flat tyre had been caused by a nail. I've had so many punctures that I am beginning to suspect the council adds nails, screws and other sharp metal objects to the asphalt when they fix up the roads.
Anyway, that's all done and I am now trying to return to schedule.
The good news (apart from lunch) was that my drive-into-town birdlist was quite good, considering I am less that a kilometre from what we like to call the CBD: rainbow bee-eater, bush stone-curlew, forest kingfisher, brush turkey, black-faced cuckoo-shrike, white-headed pigeon, crested pigeon, peaceful dove, rainbow lorikeet, pied currawong, pied butcherbird, magpie-lark, little brown job no idea what it was but not a house sparrow, black kite, Indian mynah, willie wagtail and welcome swallow.
And the garden is full of flowers. While I was photographing them, a honeybee stung me on the foot. It is Monday, after all.
Tomorrow I will be staying at home.
