Page 56 - Gilbert & Me_Neat

Day Eleven

Sunday, April 19 , 2020
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1.20am:
Awake. Can’t sleep, don’t know why, so I just lay there…waiting…
8.43am:
Awake. Wait, what happened?

It’s rugby day, or should be. I want to do something rugby related so bad, I might just pick up
Gilbert and start throwing him about the apartment. I would do too, if it weren’t for the fact that
now, first, we’re friends, and second, I might break something.

I get up, shower, but don’t bother shaving, and I don’t bother with a t shirt either. Things are
getting bad – no socks and now no t shirt. I gotta pull myself together; this is not how an
Englishman handles isolation, even if it’s in Belize. Although, I could justify that because of the
relentless heat…but, today, it’s actually not as hot, and the breeze is cooler too. Maybe some rain
is on the way… I look out the living room window: no rain clouds around, but it is slightly more
overcast than usual, so there’s hope….

Coffee is brewing nicely.

Because it’s Sunday, I decide to take a break from the novel. I’m fighting hard the desire to be
completely lazy today. This is a very strange feeling – I’m not a lazy person by nature, so this is
confusing me and making me not a little concerned for my mental health. Eleven days into
complete isolation, and I’m beginning to see changes that I don’t necessarily like; abandoning
socks was okay, that was acceptable. Abandoning a t shirt is questionable behaviour for sure,
even though I know the moment I want to go out, even onto the balcony, I will have to pull on a t
shirt. But now, now the idea of being lazy – just the very thought – is troubling me.

Where’s the coffee, perhaps that will help – I have to do something to make the coffee…

After two cups, I’m still t shirtless.

I notice that it is really quiet today. I mean REALLY quiet. Nobody is out. Because I’m usually
out doing rugby stuff, I notice lots of people out doing lots of things on Sundays, so it’s usually a
noisy day and even on the rare Sunday when there’s no rugby, it’s still a noisy day. That’s
because I live opposite a Baptist colony (well, chapel). I call it a colony for good reason. Most
everybody else would call it just a chapel, but, to my mind a chapel is a respectful, peaceful
place where you wouldn’t necessarily know if anything was going on inside. Not this place.