Day 63: Don't miss the small stuff

After the rain, at 6.12am

Day 63 (6 Feb) Wednesday. Somewhere along the way, Wednesdays came to be known as 'hump days'. I don't know where or how or why (except it is the middle of the working week), so to the middle of the week. That actually doesn't mean a lot at the moment as far as work goes. The plan today is to get in early, complete a whole stash of paperwork and get back to writing up the Meiji presentation for next week. 

Snow, not snow,  at 6.12am

Work plans rarely, if ever, work. But that wasn't what I anticipated at 6.12am today. Again, in anticipation of an early departure, I was multi-skilling--lunch on the stove, breakfast on the go, watering the bonsai and feeding the lorikeets. Oh, and I think yesterday's discussion about what sort of items people keep in their fridge was continuing on the radio.   

We'd also had a bit of rain overnight and beware the amateur photographer with a mix of early morning sunlight and raindrops. Very easily distracted. So it was when I looked on the ground around the moraya, or 'mock orange' plant. The plant has blossomed sort of 'out of season' but the overnight rain had meant a number of the petals had dropped to the ground looking a little bit like snow, just a little, but a nice effect. 

I also got a little carried away looking at some of the other plants, the patterns, the raindrops. Sometimes we don't take sufficient time to look at the small stuff. Getting up early gives me that opportunity. The leaves and the raindrops above were just one example of some of the sights between the lorikeets' feed tray and the back door this morning. 

A view within a room,
at 6.12pm

Off to work in the usual way, with all the best plans. I hold several roles simultaneously at the University. All the best plans today were ... shall we say ... sidetracked by a range of issues which arose unexpectedly. A combination of things meant that after arriving at about 10am, I didn't actually get around to doing that which needed doing until about 4.30pm. Not surprisingly, as we are beginning to discover, at 6.12pm I was still in the office, hence another view from inside the 'cave'. I was also on the phone at the time so this was the picture image before me. One senses there will be a comprehensive range of images from the office chair over the 365 days of this project. I'll try and vary the view...

The only bit of news that filtered through over the course of the day in the office was mention of a large earthquake in the Solomon Islands. Tsunami warnings accompanied the news, tsunami being one of those Japanese words which have made it across to English, though not always used in its correct sense. A tsunami is not simply a 'big wave' but is a wave which comes about as a result of an earthquake. 

The presentation is drawing nearer so there is some further work to do; tomorrow it's a quick visit to the State Library, up the highway to work and back to South Bank in the evening...I'm very much looking forward to that...

More tomorrow.