Empty

When I gave up work I decided that I was freeing myself from a life tied to timetables, days of the week, meetings and commitments etc. I gave up wearing a watch (and haven’t worn one since), I got a calendar that had more pictures than spaces for writing, I refused to keep an appointments diary. I was very wary of committing myself to anything that told me when and where I had to be at a set time. It was great to have time for what I wanted to do. 

Eventually this got a bit difficult when making arrangements with family and friends, so we started keeping a sort of house calendar. Gordon keeps an online diary - I could not cope with that. And then this year I at last relented and bought a proper diary. It is a beautiful Moleskine and I even got my name printed on the front - sheer indulgence. I love it, as it has a week on one side and then a lined page for notes on the opposite page, so it has become a useful notebook at the same time. I soon filled it with details of things we had planned for the year ahead.

I think you can see where this is heading, especially with the title!

It is now an empty diary, everything cancelled. One victim yesterday was the Hay Festival which was to have taken place in May. Gordon booked the accommodation a long time ago and I was just waiting for the programme to come out. But it has been cancelled. The organisers put out a plea for support so the charity can stay afloat. I have donated and am amazed to see all the donations flooding in. I suppose this is the kind of thing that has to happen so we can help organisations get through this. 

And of course this is only a minor problem in the whole scheme of things at the moment. There are so many people suffering much more than a few disappointments. 


And it has been such a beautiful day with lots of sunshine.