Progress

I've just scraped myself off the sofa and up to the study after sitting in a somnolent daze watching a deeply strange film called Monsoon, about a young Vietnamese man returning to Saigon after 30 years and finding it ... different. And really that was all I gathered, despite the fact that it was made for the BBC and was in English; I recorded it the other week because I wanted to see Vietnam again. Actually one thing really did resonate: the incredible noise of all the mopeds, going on all the time, and the feeling of the heat whenever we went out of doors, and the chaos of the streets where our guide told us to cross the roads "like sticky rice" (ie stick together!)

Feel things moved slightly closer to Christmas today: J started writing the cards now that I've printed the labels; I made a pudding; I decided on and ordered a present over which I've been agonising. We also spent some time on the piece I'll be singing tomorrow, which meant another visit to the freezing church and a persistent ear worm this evening. And because it was  a lovely, dry day with sunshine rather than fog I did a washing and hung it out and it all dried by mid-afternoon. I couldn't believe it had been a whole week since I'd done one, until I counted the underwear ...

In the middle of the day we went for a walk; I'd like to stick to getting out earlier when the days are so short, even if we were eating lunch at 2.30pm. Benmore Gardens was wonderfully silent except for some birdsong; we met one couple and chatted at a distance just because we seemed to be of an age and were alone on a hillside. I make no apology for the re-appearance of the hillside robin; he posed for me for ages, puffing out his downy feathers and fixing me with a beady eye. I took a video of him as well as three stills, of which this one appeals the most because in the background you can see the hills of Glen Massan. I felt rather privileged, actually, and honoured by his attention ...