Sundays start slowly. I wake at about 7.30am. Usually I am stared awake by my gluttonous housemate, Phoebe Doggie. Surreptitiously squinting through a half-opened eye reveals Phoebe looming across my sight line, eye-balling me. Her pal, Maggie, is not far behind. She tends to fling herself at me, licking my ears until I relent. It is as disconcerting as it is revolting.
Once the mademoiselles have eaten, I head for the Writing Cafe. Usually it is a cafe at an Exclusive Books, but might also be at Amatuli in Kramerville or Milk Bar in Rosebank. I write seven days a week and weekends offer an opportunity for extended work time.
Typically I work from 9am until 1pm. I sit on a hard chair, filling my pen with nothing but blood and bitter tears. I try to pace my coffee drinking so as not to preempt a major cardiac event. It is bliss. There is nowhere I would rather be. Sometimes people other than the baristas (aka caregivers) try to talk to me. This is unacceptable. A well-honed resting-bitch-face coupled with passive-aggressive sartorial choices usually dissuade chatters.I am not a fan of lunch. Even on Sundays. It is a gateway drug to sloth and napping. If I grow pale and shaky, one of the market offerings at Arts On Main are perfect. I can dispatch a Soul Souvlaki falafel in under seven minutes. I do eat sitting down though as I am too prim and Victorian to eat on the street. I've recently spent a few afternoons at The Living Room, also in Maboneng. Collectors Treasury is excellent for an afternoon of book rummaging.
On Sundays I like to take my dogs to Emmarentia for wild times and long swims. Tennis balls and a tolerance for mud are essential. It is an entirely joyful experience. On the way home I sometimes stop off at the Garden Shop on Jan Smuts to see what's pretty and in bloom.As the day winds down I clean my flat for the week ahead. I find this a happy, meditative time; organising my desk, filing papers, dusting, vacuuming. I always put on a book podcast while I clean: any and all from the BBC, Backlisted, The Cheeky Natives, This American Life, Serial etc. I always learn something and it inspires me to work harder and think more widely about the world.
If I remember, I watch Fareed Zakaria on CNN. He has excellent guests with an in-depth, global perspective. I don't always agree with him but appreciate that he covers stories others don't. Al-Jazeera documentaries do the same.
I'm in bed by 10pm. I might watch an old Bette Davis film (line for line, All About Eve has the best dialogue ever written) but, usually, I read. I'm currently re-reading Teju Cole's, Known And Strange Things. I fall asleep knowing that Phoebe Doggie is already planning her Monday morning stomach-rumble stare-down...