Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.
This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.
Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…
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How rude! I had a guy's dog come up to me, put his muddy paws on my leg and lick my face the other day--dog not on a leash, man 'walking' it by driving alongside the over-friendly animal and not bothering to try to keep it under control. Cute dog, to be sure, but really?
Indeed. Lots of lovely people doing lovely things for others right now!
Maybe it's preparatory to letting you all run into the street singing and dancing and hugging.
Now that would be good. Though certain of my neighbours might wait a while for the hugging...
1. Get up (increasingly later it seems).
I'm expecting our downstairs neighbour, who also happens to be our landlord, to evict us any day now. My boys are like elephants, football-playing, banshee-wailing elephants.
It's not so bad (sometimes it feels terrible, but that's just me losing perspective!). Mine have periods when they amuse themselves, but they do it expansively. The flat is very much theirs.
He is, and he's cool. My British worry is much bigger than his Spanish annoyance.
Good for you. Getting some words down always helps. My funk is lifting, and I shall definitely be carving out a little space on Saturday for the Litfest.
*raises fist* Always!Solidarity, Bro'
Hang in there @Rich. I can't imagine how difficult it must be. Our lockdown, by virtue of being a largely rural country that acted quickly and decisively, is much more forgiving to kids. We're allowed outdoors, provided we do nothing stupid (like, you know, walk after dark on the main highway wearing black ... don't know anyone who would do that though ...1. Get up (increasingly later it seems).
2. Cope with day (increasingly pale of face it seems).
3. Sleep (increasingly).
Sorted. No chaos here.
I'm expecting our downstairs neighbour, who also happens to be our landlord, to evict us any day now. My boys are like elephants, football-playing, banshee-wailing elephants.
If I were my landlord, I would evict us.
(that was a joke)
Hi everyone, I've been quiet for a couple of weeks. Lockdown social-media saturation was melting my brain, so I unplugged for a bit (which to be fair is a disservice to Litopia as this place is a haven rather than a noise).
We're sucking it up. There's not much else to say. The boys are now into their fifth week without a trip outside, and our flat is small. In other circumstances you'd call that child abuse. Don't get me wrong, we fully understand and support the lockdown, but it's tough on the little ones.
It looks like we've had the virus (wife's a flight attendant, as many of you know), mild symptoms, luckily, but of course we can't know for sure without testing.
This morning a friend's father-in-law died in hospital of covid-19.
I suppose one reason I've been quiet is that I like to be cheerful. And I am. But some days the cheer is harder to come by.
There's a lake near us (a reservoir actually). It's 60-odd kilometres around. When this is over, I think I'll run round it!
) and we stay close to home and away from others. You're not allowed to stop and chat with the neighbours, but at least you can stretch your legs and breathe some fresh air.
Do you intend to self-publish your poems, Robinne? In a normal-sized book, I mean!Hang in there @Rich. I can't imagine how difficult it must be. Our lockdown, by virtue of being a largely rural country that acted quickly and decisively, is much more forgiving to kids. We're allowed outdoors, provided we do nothing stupid (like, you know, walk after dark on the main highway wearing black ... don't know anyone who would do that though ...
Here in NZ the school holiday was over today, and we all went back (virtually of course) to school/work. It was naturally full of technical difficulties, but at least kids and teachers had things to do. My school already used a virtual platform to share work between families and school, so it was reasonably smooth for us, and lots of the students I teach did a good day of schoolwork. So there are little positives ... And the neighbours continue to read my poems aloud every day--lots of laughter coming from the front fence, and kids clamouring for mum to read to them, and it truly makes my day. Who'd have thought a bunch of bad poetry could cheer so many people?
Haha, yes, exactly! We Brits are way more uptight about children's behaviour than Spaniards are! I've spoken to a few Spanish landlords and they tell me Brits are among their favourite tenants, because in general we are well-behaved and reliable about paying our rent (in comparison with others). I'm not sure if the reputation is entirely well-deserved, but it can come in handy!!
NO...!!!
Oooh.....I think we need an anthology of your lockdown poems, Robinne!!
They are already doing that here and with a doctors note you can smoke the stuff. Mind you in the villages it's readily available anyway but it is not great quality. Makes a decent tea though
It's even worse for your lungs than tobacco I think so tea is a sensible option.Yes it is. Although I have a friend who vapes his (he lives in California...cannabis is a bit more legal there).
Legal or not, I got a good whiff of it this evening while I was out walking the dog. Someone (or several someones) was having a grand time.
Seconded!
Made me laugh
Either that, or you've got some writing you need to get on with. That's why most of us do the vacuuming.
No. They're mostly drivel, as far as I'm concerned. LOL! And so very time and place dependent--they'll be dated within a few months.
Not sure they'd go over well to a general audience. It was only ever my intent to make the neighbours smile. They're getting a little attention on my blog, but I suspect it's not worth taking the time to do anything formal with them. And I'm really not taking them seriously ... they're pathetic as poetry goes ...
They do the job intended, and after ten years or so (when people aren't in the middle of the fear) they will make a wonderful reminiscence. I'm thoroughly enjoying them, and read them over the phone to several elderly women in the hospice.
Yeah, there's a call here for the auto insurers to lower premiums because no one's driving, hence no one's putting in claims. And our road toll has been 0 for a month.
