Wednesday 3 August 2011

Reading, Writing, and Visas for Clones

WEDNESDAY: What a week. I've spent the morning talking to pub owners and writing an article while making a lasagne, and here I am in the Winter Garden before work trying to prep for yet another job interview. Once again it's my current job, only just a little bit better. I realise it's pointless making notes about what I obviously do in my job every day, especially while eating such a tasty sandwich. So I'd rather write about my sandwich. It's Cornish brie with basil pesto and sun-blackened tomatoes, and it's really very yummy. Meanwhile a workmate is texting and calling me on my mobile, and I've just noticed I'm surrounded by an art display. Zit-zit-zit, too much stimulation! I just saw a man walk by holding a butterfly net, a woman in heels is pulling a massively huge suitcase on wheels, and there are an inordinate number of people racing about in electric wheelchairs. It must be the annual Sheffield Art Wheelchair Giant Suitcase Butterfly Festival with Regular Mobile Updates, catered by Lasagne Writers of South Yorkshire.

THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY: I'm calling today's sandwich the Mediterratica, because it's another mixture of leftover cheeses, this time a half sandwich worth of Feta and a half of Camembert. I've got them in a checkerboard pattern with basil pesto, fresh basil, and chopped red pepper. So it's a Mediterranean erratic mixture which tastes as if it was intentional. A pigeon is watching me intently, knowing I'm a sucker for "accidentally" dropping crumbs of food. I'm sorry, I like animals, and the occasional dribble of a piece of bread is what they depend on. So there.

TUESDAY 2 OR MAYBE 3 WEEKS LATER: As I'm working only 2 days a week this month, today is the Friday of my working week, although I will be working on my own business on Wednesdays and Thursdays. For the duration of the summer Friday is reserved for table tennis, so considering I'm not playing it today it's not really anything like my current Fridays. But never mind…

I haven't written much lately because I've been trying to spend more time reading. After all, if one doesn't read, one cannot really justify one's ability to write. Currently I'm reading 3 books, all on loan from the library where I work -- and all renewed several times because life is busy and I don't have much free time in which to read. The optimum times for reading books are when I'm eating my lunch and not writing this blog, not writing a review or an article, not working on a job application, and not attempting to catch up with the pile of miscellaneous newspaper and magazine articles I've set aside to read; and also in the evenings before going to bed.

Last night I fully intended to retreat upstairs to read about postmodernism, but I was distracted by turkeys. Intrigued by "My Life As Turkey", the BBC broadcast of Joe Hutto's account of becoming mother to 16 wild turkeys for 18 months, I ended up watching the whole program, the entire lifespan of Hutto's baby turkeys from hatching to becoming independent adults setting out on their own. Although this sounds like an excuse for not reading, it was actually a fascinating and very unique documentary.

And here I am eating my lunch and not reading again. But it's because I'm writing this blog right now. After all, I can't read and write at the same time, much as I wish I could. If I had my druthers I'd clone myself so I could read, write, design art, play table tennis, explore pubs and coffeehouses, redesign my website, learn C++ and C#, play keyboards in a band, play my mandolin, clean house, travel the world, work my hours at the library, and take care of my mother in California all at the same time.

But then there's the problem of my permanent residency visa. If I leave the country for more than 2 years I need to fill in some paperwork so that I don't lose my visa. If there were 20 of me, and one of those went to live in California, would I be required to fill out the paperwork for one-twentieth of Me? Or would 1/20 of Me be required to fill out a form if 1/20 of Me were going to be out of the country for 2 X 1/20 years?

This is getting a bit confusing. I think I'd better get to work now…

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