Halfway down the Danube

Home Alone

Claudia and the boys left for Germany this morning.

A peculiarity of life in Armenia: almost all the flights from Europe arrive between 2 and 5 in the morning, and leave between 3 and 6. So, if you're flying here from Munich, you arrive at 3:30. Flying out to Prague, leave at 5:10.

This is a bigger deal than it seems, because if you're going anywhere in Europe or the US, you change planes in Prague, Munich, or Vienna. So you'd better get used to Zvartnots Airport in the wee, wee hours of the morning.

But not to complain. The departure actually went pretty smoothly. I had my office Christmas party the night before; I took the boys, so Claudia could have a few hours alone to pack and whatnot. (The boys weren't too terribly bored, since there were other children there. And they didn't seem to mind staying up late at a restaurant.)

We got perhaps two or three hours of sleep, then rose just after 2 am to wake and dress the boys and load up the car.

And, you know? It was okay. The boys were sleepy but they've done this airport-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing before, and they've been looking forward to this trip for weeks. (Grandparents.) And we -- by which I mostly mean, Claudia -- have gotten pretty good at packing, preparing , and making it all run smooth.

I follow them in a week. Meanwhile, I'm alone in the house.

So what did I do with my day of solitude?

Nothing.

I slept. (Sorry, my dear.) I woke up and had some Campbell's Tomato Soup from our steadily diminishing store (there are exactly six left). Read a little. Went shopping for food.

Went to the office and checked my e-mail. Went to the Vernissage, the open-air flea market, but didn't buy anything... just walked around.

Had some coffee and a slice of chocolate cake at the French cafe on Abovian street. Went to the Museum of Armenian Art, which I should probably blog about sometime.

Walked around some more. By this time it was getting dark, so I had a light dinner at the Lebanese place behind the Marriot. The borscht soup was bland, even for borscht -- lesson, don't order borscht in a Lebanese restaurant, even in Armenia -- but the hummus was pleasantly garlicky and the salad was first-rate.

Walked around some more. Dark by this time, and ice on the sidewalks. Cold in a "we're nearly a mile up in a dry climate" sort of way. Not unpleasant, even though I'm not someone who loves the cold.

Went back to the office to check e-mail again. Read some of Peter Watts' novel Blindsight online. (It's okay. Reading it online because it's hard to get otherwise.) Wrote this post.

Now I'll go home and read some more and then go to bed.

And that's all. Sometimes there are posts where interesting and funny and exciting stuff happens. This isn't one of them. It's just a day off, and those are pretty rare in my life right now. So.

Posted by douglas at December 16, 2006 06:51 PM