EASILY DISTRACTED

pesky headache from wine with dinner last night. the first alcohol to pass my lips in 12 days. i am so bad at sticking to things. but dinner was ok and good and spicy so it was worth it. fancy thai at the new spice i am in victoria st. my dining companion and i counted 13 different surfaces used in the restaurant interior design... there is a LOT going on in the room and while it is cosy on a rainy valentines night, it also is a bit distracting. the food was pretty good but expensive. rich and heavy dishes were ordered and probably a better combination could have been had, but i think i found a new fave spice i am dish to replace the ho mok that i have at the old spice, this one is a vegetarian rice paper dumpling that the two lovely ladies made for us on the spot while we ate at the bar. Hmmmmm. don't know the name but i will be back again for those.


so now i am pottering around the new flat, slightly over-hung and slightly creaky. i move from room to room and un-pack a box or do a load of washing up or move a vase or a shelving unit or a piece of art and look to see if it works better against this wall or that. nothing quite gets completed, just left half done. easily distracted. but also determinedly not stressing. i just need to look up and see the harbour and the trees and hear the birds and there is no stress.

so far today i've twittered, i've played scrabble, i've entertained friends and an almost 1 year old boy and all along i've kept being distracted from the tasks at hand - settling in, and even more pressing, doing my tax. for 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. i better do it otherwise no part in the stimulus package for me.

i am the best procrastinator around. i think i have made an artform of it. many will agree. the dearly departed used to yell and scream and wring his hands in despair at my ability to be distracted and to procrastinate. my current beau is more forgiving, but still gets very frustrated and i can see him grind his teeth under his loving smile. the thing is, i don't know where it comes from. once upon a time i am sure i was a driven, enthusiastic, focused sort of person. diligence was something my mother used to always say i had. was that a nice way of saying that i was all heart and no talent?

FLUSHED IN THE FACE

Drinking and me have never quite worked out. Aside from coffee and sugar, it is the only drug that I do with any kind of regularity and it is only done to keep me from being a dull human being.

I was trying to NOT be a dull human being on my second night here in Barcelona, playing with the dancers whose tour I have crashed - yes, i be the groupie of a sound man (and a Sound Man he is) - and getting to know them over dinner and red wine followed by several shots of tequila gold served with cinnamon and slices of orange. The canela y naranja caused many a raised eyebrow in the London Bar and a smirk or two in La Confiteria, where i also broke a glass. Oops.


But this drink comes to me from a New Yorker. It makes for good bonding with people you barely know. We first did them in some dark bar in Berlin and then again in some smoky bar in Brussels. We eventually traded shots - she gave me this and i gave her Russian Cocaine in Amsterdam on New Year's Eve. Vodka and a lemon wedge dipped in sugar and coffee grinds. When we started on these the party we were at suddenly woke up and was able to match the warzone of fireworks outside.




The hangover from that night prompted a New Year's Day Yum Cha at the Oriental Palace in Amsterdam. Whereas the hangover from a night of tequila in Barca prompted a day of throwing up and sleeping. I didn't leave the hotel, I watched Hilary Clinton address the Senate Hearing, and George Bush give Blair and that weasel Johnnie their medals. It all blurred with dreams of finding the right fridge door - the bright yellow one - in a sea of fridge doors. I could barely keep down a glass of water. I listened to the street below as it woke up from its siesta and as it went to dinner and as it partied into the night. A lost day. I've had these before and they kill me, but i know that i come back from the dead and that sure enough some time again i'll be back here trying to not be so dull.