When I worked on the world's then biggest construction job on Bougainville Island, I saw some new arrivals take one look at what they had let themselves in for and then start the countdown to the end of their twelve-month contract. To this end, they would prepare an adding-machine tape running down from 365 to 1, from which they would cross off one number one day at a time.
I was thinking of preparing a similar tape starting from 37, which is the number of days until Padma's return from Indonesia, but then thought the better of it. Instead, while the wild weather rages outside, I settled down in the small bedroom, switched on the small portable oil column heater, and watched cooking videos to get me through the next five weeks. The first video was on how to boil water by a masterchef, who alas failed to mention that you can freeze any left-over hot water into ice cubes so as to have plenty of hot water left over for next time.
I must confess that, after twenty-five years of not always total marital bliss, I'm a little out of training in dealing with my newly found solitude.
