UNPREDICTABILITY: A BLESSING!

No matter how well organised or prepared I pretend to be, life in the country is simply unpredictable.                                                                                                                                                                   

I make a lunch appointment in town, thinking that getting up earlier and doing most of my morning chores the night before will be an assurance that I will show up on time, and clouds of tiny insects choose to descend on us during the night, to drop dead by the thousands all over the terrace floor, the garage and the whole perimeter of the house. The best thing to do in such a case is to grab the water hose, open full pressure and spray, spray everywhere there are insects, on the floor, on the walls, along the roof cornice.... Iko, the Labrador, is having a field day, catching the spray, sliding the whole width of the garage, falling off the terrace deck, and honestly, so am I having a wonderful time being wet, wet, wet. Meanwhile, the old Dutch clock in the living-room remains indifferent to my having fun; it keeps a stern track of time while I totally lose it. I’ll call to say that I’ll be late for lunch.                                                                                                                                                                                  

I promise myself an afternoon treat at the book store; an indefinite power cut strikes the area and I am left to choose between manually opening the front gate which weighs more than a ton (literally) or spend the day staring at my own sweat oozing out of my pores. I choose to open the gate, and while I can’t help a quick mental calculation of my surely will-be sinsei (traditional Chinese chiropractor) bill, once the job done I find myself standing both arms stretched up towards heaven, proud to claim “Yes! I did it!”  “I am woman!”

And just this morning I wanted to stay at home and concentrate on writing something I’ve had in mind for a while.  I had barely opened my computer when suddenly the whole study-room sounded like the busiest dog pound on its worse day. I looked out the window to find four of my dogs furiously barking towards the corner of the wall. One glimpse and I jumped to my desk, grabbed my camera, ran out and took my best shots at a tiny baby monitor lizard fencing with three Maltese and big Uncle Sherlock, the Belgian shepherd. And so it is with unpredictability, which by nature always catches me unaware and more than often, turns my day into experiences I would not have missed, not even for a lunch appointment with a friend.                                                            

     

I pull my tongue at predictability!