Scratching my underbelly
September 9, 2005Onemana, New Zealand
One more day until dinner at Carols! I am one large rippled ball of excitement!
My legs are sore. Today’s daily walk choice included 400m of direct incline right at the finish. I could feel the thick blood rumbling through my veins. My heart like scared lungs. Up down, in out, up down. And then I was home. So sweaty and puffy. So red and lovely. I jumped in the shower. Mildly cold shower. Didn’t take. Still sweating, I ate a grapefruit and drank green tea. Finally the tap shut off and I was able to sit for a spell. It was when I stood up the re-streching of thigh muscles occurred, and I almost toppled like a card house after a sneeze. So I sat back down. To type.
Yesterday was pretty uneventful, except for the beautifully ugly 2,500 words of CMSG that I feverishly wrote while listening to techno and staring at the ocean. I was happy. I am happy about it. In Byron I had convinced myself the only way I could write that story was to be half drunk with a full pack of smokes beside me. I romanticized it. Recluse writer. Drink in one hand, smoke in the other, ranting at the screen, yelling at my wife, getting in fights with locals. What an asshead I am. Now that the groove has been established, the routine has been accepted, the three hours a day of power writing is starting to be something I look forward to, instead of dreading. It’s at 45 pages. I am 1/8th finished.
Yesterday another neighbour Sandy dropped by. She was actually the one left the firm and juicy oranges in a bag at our door. Very interesting. Soon I will be courting all the sixty-year old women on the block. Pitting them against each other. Making them ache for taste of the big chunk of fudge. I need a really good name for this soap opera. Love After September….Way Down Under….Your Oranges or Mine….Call Me Momma….Ew. Nix the last one.
Sandy invited us over for tea, so after our lunch and a movie for Hud, we walked across the street and sat down to talk to Sandy and Russ. Russ immediately took me outside to show me his garden. This was not unlike us scratching our sacks and shooting whiskey, except a lot gayer. Russ is also hard of hearing so, instead of attempting to actually listen, or have an aid, he just keeps on talking, opining, lecturing, while I stand there, mentally smacking him upside the head.
He did ask what I did for a living and I told him what I used to do, and that I am trying to be a writer now. He asked what I wrote and I said right now I am attempting a crime fiction novel, about the darker side of life, the underbelly. Have you ever been involved in the underbelly he asked?
This is the point where I wanted to say…. well I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
But I did not, I shuffled my feet, kicked a nearby stone and just as I was about to answer, my mouth open, my finger poised to make a point, Russ began talking about volunteering in a prison and how, if given a choice, the prisoners would choose pain as punishment instead of confinement. I thought it was an appropriate juncture to punch Russ right in the wiggly jaw and he dropped 25 ft to his garden faster than a bag of hammers.
After that round of fascination, we went back inside and Tina; Russ and Sandy’s daughter had arrived with her five-year-old son Zach. They will be staying here this weekend, so everyone was trying to get Hud and Zach to play together. They did eventually, going out to the garden and circling the property. The property is very nice, including the garden. The lookout directly over Onemana beach, a view I could never get tired of.
Tina was ok. She was all scowly and quiet when she arrived and I think she was tired or not really happy about being at her parents’ house. She is a midwife covering a much too large region, so she spends a lot of time in her car. It was nice to have some interaction with someone my own age. Steph gets that with her playgroups. I get that with Steph. It’s amazing how much you miss talking to people.
Last night we had a great bbq pesto chicken with broccoli and cauliflower and big spinach salad with apples and red peppers. Yum. The food regime goes well. We will treat ourselves a little on the weekend, but I am going to try and not over do it. Since Monday I have lost over seven pounds. I know its all water weight, so I will start with a new number this Monday and use that as the actual start weight.
I am loving the exercise though. Even if I can’t get up from this chair.
Love to all,
J.
posted by Jason @ 1:14 PM
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