Limitless

Mesaimeer

Expectations and first impressions sometimes don't marry up. I worked in the Middle East art market for five years, so had a fairly good idea of what to look forward to. But, my Middle East is the places I've explored and loved: the Alhambra, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, a friend's candlelit riad ... moonlight on water, shaded courtyards, dazzling mosaics. It's exquisite calligraphy and it's Richard Burton, Owen Jones, Prisse d'Avennes - it's Paul Bowles, (reread The Sheltering Sky before coming out).

I hadn't expected everything to be so *new* (we are the first family to live in this apartment - previous occupant was a single Captain, which explains why the oven still had the stickers on it :). The city seems to literally be rising up out of the desert - everyday you notice a new building going up.

Adaptation takes a while, and yet, a month in and it's beginning to feel like home. We escaped to the coast for the weekend - swam in the Gulf, rode camels (here's a tip, never stand downwind of a braying camel - the world's worst halitosis). The children are back at school, so after dropping them at 7am I can work. My head is with 'The Beauty Chorus' in 1940s Britain, while I'm swimming laps in 21st century Qatar. We've talked about this bizarre split before - how writers can be two (or three, four), places at once. Maybe as Paul Bowles says in today's clip, the secret is really to notice, and feel where you are - not to take anything for granted. The trick to survival - and perhaps happiness, is to seek out the things that bring you joy, however small they are - and hold on to them. As writers, that's what we are constantly training ourselves to do - to notice, remember, feel more.

This quote from James Beard on today's Writer's Almanac says it all: 'When someone asked him what his philosophy was, he said: "Feel free and take a fresh look. My emphasis is on options. My motto: 'Why not?'"

TODAY'S PROMPT: Take a fresh look. Notice first impressions. Why not take five minutes and jot down the first things that you notice around you? Sights, sounds, smells. Paint a word picture, a stream of consciousness that conjures up your world. Here's what I saw and felt this morning walking to work: languid, air like a warm bath, collecting fallen frangipani and bougainvillea from the pavement, everyone walking loose-limbed and slow, dragonflies hovering over the pool, muezzin intoning, wind carries taste of dust, drains, dark coffee brewing ... Your turn. (If anyone wanted to write about rain, and grass ... I wouldn't say no :)

Care for a mint old chap?