Sylvia's Journal

Two things were different this morning. First, Axel is sleeping on his bad arm, facing me. For most of the last few months we have been facing the ceiling or away from each other because our bad sides were in the middle (we could not change places in our bed because then Axel could not push himself up to get out). This may seem a rather tame observation to most of the world but for me it is a big deal. Second, I interrupted the flow of my writing to go downstairs, reboot the router and make coffee so that I am all ready to take Annette to the airport in an hour. Coffee before writing? This would be a daring experiment. It will for once and for all silence the question whether coffee helps with productivity.

One of my new exercises is walking down the stairs normally, that is one foot per tread. This is a huge undertaking for me but to make the coffee experiment work I have to go down again and might as well do the exercise. I am leaning heavily on my arms on the railing. This irritates my rotator cuff tendon which then requires a different set of exercises. This is how we are keeping ourselves busy.

We celebrated Annette’s visit by introducing her to some of our dearest friends. She celebrated it by cooking us a huge Indonesian dinner which took her most of the day. It was a dreary Dutch or London kind of day anyway, and cooking was not a bad way to pass the time. Axel and I passed the time working on various assignments, buoyed by the amazing smells coming from the kitchen. The smells were so strong that Sita and Jim both arrived home for dinner in time, Sita from as far away as Boston.

What we experienced last night, as we set around the table with Sita, Jim, Katie-Blair, Andrew, Annette and the two of us– with dog Bessie under the table – is what I imagine the Chinese call Double Happiness: being with wonderful people and eating royally.

And with regard to the coffee experiment: quod erat demonstrandum!