Candes Saint-Martin, my favourite spot in La Touraine.

Friday 30 May 2014

A lie-in? Never heard of!

Live at the office and even at home has been quite hectic and busy lately. With the long 'Ascension' weekend, I was hoping to get some quality time for myself, including at least one good lie-in. When I made my to-do-list last Wednesday (while working from home), I decided that today, Friday would be the best day. Having done most of my chores on Thursday, including going to our weekly open-air market, cooking and having lunch with my mother, doing some laundry and getting through a pile of ironing that had almost found a permanent home in the ironing basket, ... I finished the day on the coach, enjoying a 600 page novel, a present from my childhood friend Mati with whom I had lunch last Friday and watching a light comedy film: a Maid in Manhattan with Jennifer Lopez.

I went to bed at 11 p.m. and fell asleep within seconds, for once not disturbed by my downstairs' neighbours who often seem to live in a different timezone, judging by their nightly activities which mostly go on till 3 a.m.

Although I slept with the bedroom window open, I missed the resident birds' morning concert. Which is a shame because there is no nicer way to be awoken than by the sound of a chirping bird choir. They usually start around 4.30 a.m. and go on till 6 a.m. After that, their recital is drowned by the noise of the first passing trucks.

The reading room at Leuven's library which I visited On April 11th,
with my English friends V. and S.
I sure could use some of that 'silence' right now.

This morning I woke up to the sound of some heavy stomping downstairs and considerable traffic on the stairs leading to the second floor apartment, which is located just over my head. The elderly lady who used to live there, has moved into a retirement home after spending several months in a mental clinic suffering from a severe depression. I met her daughter and son-in-law a few weeks ago and they told me that they would soon start emptying the apartment, redecorate the place and put it up for rent. The furniture went two weeks ago and the first, light renovation work started two days ago. By the sound of it, they were ripping out the fitted carpet and stripping the walls. I was working from home and very concentrated on what I was doing, so the noise didn't really disturb me.

This morning, it was and is a completely different matter. The banging, drilling, etc. started shortly after 8 o'clock and has been going on since then. I think they must be ripping out the bathroom ... at least! I can hardly hear my radio! At quarter to nine I decided that the planned lie-in was not going to happen. I got up, made myself a nice breakfast, checked my emails (professional and personal; luckily the professional inbox was empty). Then it was time to read my favourite blogs. A quick snack ... and here I am, writing this post.

I can't blame the people upstairs, because the work has to done. During the two weeks preceding my 2011 move into this apartment my decorator worked here for several days; probably keeping the residents in place at the time from having a nice lie-in or quiet morning. Let's just hope that they don't decide on working on Saturday, so that I can still have the much needed rest before going back to work on Monday.

5 comments:

Bob said...

I call your "lie-in" a "sanity check." There's a time that you NEED to drop work and make time for yourself and just do what YOU want!! When I worked I tried to never bring things home, which worked most of the time. I knew if anything ever happened to me, I could always be replaced, so why kill myself by becoming so stressed at work. Now that I'm retired, I don't miss work and I'm sure things are going well at the old office. I'm so busy doing what I want to do, I wonder how I had time to go to work. ENJOY YOUR LIE-IN,!

chm said...

We had lunch yesterday at the Grand Bistrot de Breteuil with N. and Y. We missed you. They send their best, and so do we.

The Beaver said...

Merci CHM.
Eh oui, Martine, would have been wonderful to partake lunch and a long conversation with you.

Well, like I said, there is always another time, no fixed date yet :-) though CHM would have liked that we settled for next yr

chm said...

Bonjour Cousine,
It was so nice to see you both again. Glad the weather turned nice for your last days in Paris. Have a safe trip back to Montréal.

ladybird said...

Bob, I can tell that you're enjoying retirement. And you are so right!

Chm, Thank you. I'm really sorry I couldn't make it to Paris. I would have been nice seeing you and Ken again and meeting The Beaver and her husband.

TB, I know I would have loved meeting you over a good lunch. Maybe next year! Hope you had a nice stay, despite the somewhat damp weather. Also hope you had a safe trip home.