Monday, May 19, 2008

DIARY ENTRY 19

from S. V.
to "I. Persaud"
date Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:35 AM
subject RE: From Ingrid - gentle reminder to send in your diaries of Tuesday 6 May please

hide details 9:35 AM (2 hours ago) [May 6.doc]


Reply


Hi Ingrid,
Interesting exercise. I'm eager to see what comes of this.
Regards,
S. V.

Tuesday, May 6

4:15 a.m. Deep sleep. Hear my dogs barking. Ignore it. They come into the bedroom and bark. Beau’s voice is shrill. Can no longer ignore it. Get up in a fog and let them out, where they bark some more. Put in earplugs. Go back to sleep.

8:53 Wake up. Either the alarm has not gone off or I have not heard it. Brush teeth.
Make coffee. Turn on computer. Check email and news.
Tweak and finalise the article for Select on historical presence of Jews in Barbados. How to fix those last paragraphs? Send it. Vici emails about photos. Hadn’t thought of that.
More coffee.
Check email. Respond to some. Delete lots of spam. Wonder what is going on with the Internet, why there is suddenly so much garbage coming through.

11:15? Wash last night’s dishes. Uh-oh. A rat again. Mental note to get more bait.
Feed the dogs. Get a little something for myself, just a bite, not a proper breakfast.
This place is a mess. No time to clean.
Back to desk. Organise list of phone calls. Organise agenda.
More stupid emails.
X calls, asking if I’ll write something for her magazine. Make notes.

1:30-ish Shower. Get dressed, something decent in case I go out. What’s clean? Jeans and a pressed white shirt. Look in fridge. Last night’s leftover tuna was supposed to have gone into making a nice salade Nicoise for lunch, something to look forward to, but there are no olives. Could use capers instead. Uh-oh. I haven’t cooked the potatoes or the beans either. Tuna would make a good sandwich. Do that instead.
Watch a little Oprah while eating. The show is really dumb today, but at least I’m finding out who this Hannah Montana person is. Look at all those screaming kids! Some are crying with joy. Many sing along. The song says something about having shoes in all different colours. What is she promoting?
No wonder people grow up with blind obsession to consume. But wait, I like shoes too. Hmm.

Go out for cigarettes, check the mailbox.
Make several phone calls to hotels for site visits. The editor for that project said her other writers got these things done in X amount of time per site. Is she nuts? Is something wrong with me?
Check email. Finalise appointment for conference call—whose time zone are we talking about?
Worry about smoking too much. Worry about productivity. About possible addiction to computer solitaire. Those little breaks must add up. Get up from desk and tidy here and there for a few minutes. Hardly a dent. Feel overwhelmed. This is tropical living?
Time to work on contributions to a website.

4:30-ish Working up some steam. Voices at the door. Bad timing. It’s people I like
and haven’t seen (except for a few minutes in a crowd last night) for the 5 months they’ve been away. She is allowing the dogs to jump on her. Knows better. But they’re excited to see each other. Start an argument, sortof, about something else. Explain how what they did/didn’t do made me feel insignificant. Hear their side. Counter. Hear them. Consider pointing out an inconsistency. Is this any way to re-unite? Let it go. Sit out back talking.
Someone calls them. They leave.

5:15 Time to get it together for an artists’ meeting at 6:30. How? Send apologies.
Feed the dogs. C calls, wanting to know when we are making travel arrangements. Oh God. How to explain on the phone about the intricacies of getting around the Grenadines? Better come over.
Prepare presentation for tomorrow’s marketing meeting. Printer screws up. Fix it later.
What’s for dinner? Leftover rice & beans, salad, omelette. C is late. Work on odds & ends.
7:40 C arrives. Look at map of St V & Grenadines. Look at ferry schedules. Look
for scheduled flights between islands. Websites out of date. Send email queries. Eat dinner while watching a borrowed movie, Before Sunrise. It’s wonderful. Discuss it.
11:15 pm Past my bedtime. Arrange for C to phone in morning, in case I don’t hear
the alarm again. She leaves.
11:25 pm
Work on tomorrow morning’s presentation for a moment so it will gel in my sleep. Get ideas. Write them down. Change some bits. Oh God, look at the time.
Say goodnight to dogs.
Why does the bedside lamp work only when it feels like it?
There’s a mosquito inside the net. Get up and kill it.

12:45 Go to sleep.

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NOTICE OF THE PROJECT

MAKE TODAY HISTORY

This project by the artist Ingrid Persaud aims to record an ordinary day, Tuesday May 6 2008, in the life of people in Barbados.
If you are in Barbados on May 6 all you do is keep a diary of your day, between 600 -1000 words, and email it to her.

It will function as a time capsule capturing for history what people did on that very normal day – what they wore, what they ate, where they went, what transport they used – just the stuff of a normal day. It is not about recording extraordinary events.

The records will ultimately be available online for all to share. Keep a record of the day and send to:

maketodayhistory@gmail.com

You can email it anytime between 6 and 9 May 2008.

Please tell your family, colleagues and friends.