After nearly two weeks away from home, I am back in the old routine. Not that I really have a regular routine, and I sometimes wonder how I manage to drift around the place in such aimless confusion when supposedly I still have all my marbles. (Hmm, might need to check that further somehow).
Friday is usually housework day and I have been deliberately resisting the occasionally-surfacing urge to tidy or clean since we have been back home, so as to reinstate the Friday ritual. Today being Friday, I managed to tackle the vacuuming by 10.30, which is pretty good going for me. Sadly, by 11 o’clock I had been derailed by the discovery of an infestation of fleas on the sofa. This truly grossed me out and there followed a good twenty minutes or more of frantic de-cushioning, shaking and close-hoovering of said sofa, and a detailed inspection of the other seats in the room – all of which are frequented by our dear old cat. Whose fault this most definitely must be – but he doesn’t seem to care.
This was then followed by a further careful look at the two blanket throws I had banished to the garden, resulting in a short session of thumbnail flea-popping (gross but satisfying in equal measure). A further brush and then they were unceremoniously flung into the washing machine. I suppose I was slightly guilty of making a drama out of this, which is fairly inevitable when giving houseroom to an indoor/outdoor cat, even if we do remember to treat him with vet-advised expensive flea-killer from time to time.
Drama of other sorts is sadly lacking so I was looking forward to my next theatre visit next week with a matinée at the Old Vic, when in popped an email from their Box Office announcing that the performance I was due to see has been cancelled. This is the second time in a few months that I have received such a mail. Last time was a real shame because they had upgraded me and in the re-booking I lost that advantage. I think that time it was a COVID infection which caused the cancellation, but this time they have made it clear that they have had to cancel several performances due to insufficient ticket-sales. This is just so sad. When I looked to see what the availability for alternative performances looked like, there are still tons of seats. The production is called Camp Siegfried and stars two highly acclaimed stage actors whom I have seen shine in other performances in the past year. But neither of them is a TV or film star of note, and without that or a trusty revival, it is perhaps hard to persuade people to flood back to the theatre when there are still concerns over social distancing and pinging etc.
Ah well, I’m sure I can make my own life-drama somehow or other.