Home and 'let-jagged'

Rose hips in the garden

Predictive text has a very creative lexicon. Put in ‘jet-lagged’ and you get ‘let-jagged’. But it’s perfectly representative of the upside down nature of the condition! I’m coping with a twelve hour time shift and a complete reversal of seasons. The daffodils and baby lambs of a New Zealand spring have been swapped for the pale sunlight, migrating birds and yellowing leaves of early English autumn. Trying to re-programme your mind and body to accept the idea that night is now day and vice versa has a strange effect. I feel rather wobbly and unreal and have only a vague notion of where I am in time and space. I’m clumsy and knock things over. I wake at 3 am and wander round the house drinking mugs of tea and eating biscuits because I’m ravenously hungry.

It’s good to be back home though and in my own bed. Hopefully this year I’m not going to be travelling so much. Last year I spent only a few weeks at home, and the house and garden feel very neglected.

The big surprise is that the cat is back! Let no one ever tell you that cats have short memories. When I left for Cambodia last September and then for six months in Italy, followed by other long absences, my beloved Heathcliff went to neighbours who thought they were getting a permanent resident. I never imagined he would remember me at all and had resigned myself to losing him. But no. As soon as I arrived home he appeared in the garden, rubbed himself against my legs and followed me into the house as if he’d never been away.  He is much fatter than when I left and has obviously been well looked after.  Heathcliff is still Kathy's cat. I just hope his foster family don’t feel too insulted by this abandonment!