Winter Versus Summer in Andalucia
This is my latest assignment piece for Matador U, trying to work in different shifts of time.
The alarm clock shrills. Vibrating loudly on the wooden table, I have to get up to shut it up. This a must to wake and move me in the mornings. It´s not quite light today, grey ominous clouds obscure the sun.
I see if the bread van has left my order, one roll for my youngest son to take to school. I make his bocadillo with jamon, olive oil and salt and he heads off to the bus.
I head back to bed with an Earl Grey tea and marmite on toast, fire up the laptop and check my emails, blog stats, adsense income, anything to delay the must dos a while longer.
It´s Monday and I must reclaim the house from the weekend abuse. When I do school books, shoes and recycling all vie for my attention. Tidying what things I can so they can be found later by their owners without the “Mum, where´s my…..” shout.
I soon give up and pick up my laptop again. I have an hour or two of solitude before lunch needs to be made and lesson plans need to be done.
Oh for those long hot sultry summer days. No clock was needed then, I´d get up, feed the chickens, make a cup of tea and work on the computer. Lunch was a snack, a token of the heat rather than of hunger.
Eating never seemed as important as when the days are colder. Pool time was never before 5pm, it was still too hot, but any time after that we could cool down for the first time in 24 hours.
Today I hang the washing out with fingers stiffening with cold. Last summer I did the washing in the evenings and hung it out to dry overnight so it didn´t dry to a crisp or fade in the incessant sun.
We´d have main meal late in the day after the heat had abated and the flies had gone. Then we´d sit and star-gaze, counting the shooting stars and listening to the hooting of the scops owl. Sometimes we´d get in the small inflatable pool and lie back watching the night sky.
Oh the long lazy summer days of no school, no work, no time keeping. They´ll be back but now it´s 11am, autumn is hanging around and I´m keeping one eye on the clock. My morning mentally divided into time slots of what I´ve to do.
It´s 1pm and I call an English student on Skype for his 45-minute conversation lesson. It´s lunch time now; the house will soon erupt with running feet and large sons. It´s a noisy lunch, they have plenty to say. I´m pensive, going over the lessons I have in the afternoon, four hours of trying to teach some English to Spanish kids.
Oh those summer days of freedom which seem to last forever, no thinking ahead, plenty of time for thinking of nothing and doing everything.
It´s past eight o´clock, lessons are over and I come home tired. My head throbs and I yearn for a bit of peace, but that´ll have to wait as it´s feeding time again. Another meal to prepare, more clearing up to do. Until tomorrow.
The alarm clock shrills. Vibrating loudly on the wooden table, I have to get up to shut it up. This a must to wake and move me in the mornings. It´s not quite light today, grey ominous clouds obscure the sun.
I see if the bread van has left my order, one roll for my youngest son to take to school. I make his bocadillo with jamon, olive oil and salt and he heads off to the bus.
I head back to bed with an Earl Grey tea and marmite on toast, fire up the laptop and check my emails, blog stats, adsense income, anything to delay the must dos a while longer.
It´s Monday and I must reclaim the house from the weekend abuse. When I do school books, shoes and recycling all vie for my attention. Tidying what things I can so they can be found later by their owners without the “Mum, where´s my…..” shout.
I soon give up and pick up my laptop again. I have an hour or two of solitude before lunch needs to be made and lesson plans need to be done.
Oh for those long hot sultry summer days. No clock was needed then, I´d get up, feed the chickens, make a cup of tea and work on the computer. Lunch was a snack, a token of the heat rather than of hunger.
Eating never seemed as important as when the days are colder. Pool time was never before 5pm, it was still too hot, but any time after that we could cool down for the first time in 24 hours.
Today I hang the washing out with fingers stiffening with cold. Last summer I did the washing in the evenings and hung it out to dry overnight so it didn´t dry to a crisp or fade in the incessant sun.
We´d have main meal late in the day after the heat had abated and the flies had gone. Then we´d sit and star-gaze, counting the shooting stars and listening to the hooting of the scops owl. Sometimes we´d get in the small inflatable pool and lie back watching the night sky.
Oh the long lazy summer days of no school, no work, no time keeping. They´ll be back but now it´s 11am, autumn is hanging around and I´m keeping one eye on the clock. My morning mentally divided into time slots of what I´ve to do.
It´s 1pm and I call an English student on Skype for his 45-minute conversation lesson. It´s lunch time now; the house will soon erupt with running feet and large sons. It´s a noisy lunch, they have plenty to say. I´m pensive, going over the lessons I have in the afternoon, four hours of trying to teach some English to Spanish kids.
Oh those summer days of freedom which seem to last forever, no thinking ahead, plenty of time for thinking of nothing and doing everything.
It´s past eight o´clock, lessons are over and I come home tired. My head throbs and I yearn for a bit of peace, but that´ll have to wait as it´s feeding time again. Another meal to prepare, more clearing up to do. Until tomorrow.
