Alexander the Great is Welcome in My Tub

[dotinthesky]

I`ve started reading Fire From Heaven, the first novel in a trilogy about Alexander the Great, written by Mary Renault. I lay down in the living room`s couch after breakfast, turned on the radio on BBC3 (which was playing some kind of medieval music) and read the first chapter. I`m now in the mood for reading a history book on the side, to accompany it. I get in these (ambitious) moods sometimes when I`m reading a historical novel, a biography or a history text; I feel the need to add to the story by joining it with other writings which are related to it. I remember how after reading Marie Antoinette`s biography by Antonia Fraser I wanted to go around London`s museums looking for anything which might have belonged to her, or to others from the same period in France.

At 11:13, I went swimming. The water was as cold as yesterday, but my body felt less lethargic and less tired by the end of it. While I`m unemployed, I might as well make use of my free time to swim. I came home, went splat on the couch for half an hour, then made myself a ham & cheese sandwich. To drink, I brewed a mug of brasilian tea (Cha Matte Leao.)

I`m washing the bathrooms this afternoon, calling my temp agency, then running a bath. I`m thinking of ways into bringing the stereo into the bathroom, lighting some candles, and laying in the water for a good solid hour. I like it when there`s only one candle lit and the bathroom is covered in shadows. You can barely see yourself reflected in the steamed mirror, your toes floating by the water taps, the ceiling ending somewhere by the air exhaust. There are no windows in our bathroom so the candle becomes the focal point as it flickers away from the water. I have a glass of cold water by the side of the tub, in case I get too drained by the heat. I lie there and forget the hour. When I come out, I`m wrinkled like a prune but happy wrinkled like a happy prune!

It`s raining, cold and grey outside. Even more of a reason for me to disappear down the bathtub`s drain.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Wrinkled like a happy prune!

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

it's cold and rainy here, too. I wouldn't dare take a bath in our tub, but I would like to just curl up in bed or on the couch all day and do nothing. Unfortunately, I have to go to work.

[13thofnever.livejournal.com]

you make bathtime sound like a religious experience...I love it.

What a lovely way to burn

[lala-jones.livejournal.com]

Teach me, Oliver, the art of hedonism...

My own unemployed, delinquent ass has taken to hefting large pieces of furniture around to kill the guilt of procrastination. Cooking is too ephemeral, and not nearly painful enough, to justify avoiding my paper.

(Mind you, I haven't contacted any temp agency, or applied for any job, or done anything I'm supposed to be doing to further my survival on earth. I guess those activities might help. And I'm not saying you ought to feel guilty, by any means. I just wish I were capable of enjoying a bath, in the best of times... Could you write a primer for those bodies wracked by inner strife???)

[twinner.livejournal.com]

When you're finished Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy & you feel up to it, try her novel, THE CHARIOTEER --- a more modern story about being gay --- it's most excellent; It's nice to see you're staying so squeekily & romanticly clean.....

[hunterjr.livejournal.com]

relax pra vida, rs
que engraçado... aqui em Sampa tb tá tudo cold, grey e raining. mas aqui é outono né.

[stupid-wanker06.livejournal.com]

now i'm curious...what were you listening to?