A slapstick start to the day, when I absent-mindedly confuse my breath freshener spray with my eau de toilette. The rest of Friday is thus spent tasting eau de toilette in my mouth – soapy, synthetic, unpleasant. Not the first time this has happened, either.
It reminds me of the comedian Steven Wright’s line about mixing up his door key with his car key, and starting up his building.
I think I’ve always been like this. It’s not so much ‘losing it’ as never quite having ‘it’ in the first place. My mind is always wandering, but the thing is, it’s not out of idleness or lack of interest. It’s more a resistance to settling for one thing at a time. An awareness of the sheer sweetshop-ness of things to think about. Why choose when one can lunge for everything at once (and so miss out entirely)? What others label distraction, I call greed.
Which is an excuse to put up a photo I rather like from a year or so ago. I’m enjoying afternoon tea at the Wolseley with Ms L (in the foreground) and company. I wonder what’s causing me to gaze out of frame so? Could be something. Probably everything.
(photo by Tallulah Newton)
