Going to the warm-water pool twice a week (it used to be three times) at the crack of dawn or even before means that on all other days I am also up well before the crack of dawn.
This morning was one of those "other" days and I woke up with an odd sensation: I felt terrific. This doesn't happen often and I was suspicious. While I was still on this high, I quickly restoked the fire, cooked my porridge, and turned on the computer to check if amongst scores of spam emails there might be one from someone I knew. There wasn't but I noticed that someone in Russia had been very busy reading my blog.
Padma will spend the day with lady-friends having coffee and cake at the Catalina Club in the Bay which means I can do some peaceful fireside reading with Paul Theroux's "The Happy Isles of Oceania".
Reading gives me a place to go when I want to stay were I am. And it gives someone in Russia a place to go when he has to stay where he is.
