The kitchen tiling was completed, and the entire flat was covered in a thick layer of white plaster, even though the tiler had been careful to keep the door closed. He told me today he is a gynaecologist from Turkmenistan, with three children back home. What could I say but spread my hands hoping to convey sympathy but also ‘so it goes’.
The GF was to arrive this evening so I spent about three hours cleaning – mostly sweeping and dusting, but in the kitchen I also scrubbed each floor tile individually to get any rogue plaster drips before they set. I listened to an entire podcast series on fish sounds – fascinating though a little contrived at time – and by the time I was finished I was exhausted.
As was the GF when he arrived, for there were severe delays at the Amsterdam airport and it had taken hours to get through security, then the plane was late and then his taxi driver accidentally marked his Uber journey complete in the middle of nowhere late at night, leading the GF to, uncharacteristically, send me his trip details just in case. Fortunately it was fine and the GF arrived bringing with him a most unexpected gift for me – a really beautiful fossilised trilobite, a fossil I had hungered for as a child. It is quite lovely, the detail on it, and so beautifully uncovered from the rock. There is something rather special about something one longs for as a child manifesting so unexpectedly.