Indulged

One of my tasks as a feature writer is to come up with interesting people to profile in various set pieces we have in our magazines. One of these set pieces is Indulge, in which we ask people about their indulgences, what they can't live without, and how they spent their weekends. A lot of people answer the same things; red wine, chocolate, 'my family' and coffee come up again and again. Sometimes you get one that's a real corker, like tomorrow's one in which I talked to New Rags market founder Abbie McCall about her love of retro chairs. I have often wondered if I would make a good Indulge subject. What do you think?

My indulgence is: Time by myself. I've spent a lot of time by myself in my life - sometimes too much time. But it's the one thing I crave when the noise of the world, work and home clogs up my brain. I need time to daydream. I was thinking the other day about one afternoon when I was temping in London at a lawyer's office. I had the glamorous task of photocopying pages of exhibits for a trial. The office was somewhere in a leafy part of London I had never been before, and it being summer, was gloriously warm and light after work. I walked to the tube station through streets I'd never seen before, and when I got to the tube, I just kept on walking, all the way home to Earlsfield. I loved the idea that I had no place to be and could just take my time.
When I do get time by myself, I like to op shop, or sit in a cafe with the paper and a cuppa. Running is one way I get to have time by myself. I have little mantras I chant to myself to get me up hills or to last the distance. I find it really hard when someone in jogsquad wants to chat while we're running - I love having someone to run with, but I can't do that and talk too.
Sometimes the only time I really have to daydream is on the train. Everyone around me has they're ipods plugged into their heads, or has a book or is playing on their phone. I like to stare out the window. The harbour puts on a display each morning I find hard to resist.
I can't get by without: a cup of tea within the first ten minutes of waking. Nothing tastes as good, as cleansing, as refreshing as that first cup of tea. I spend the rest of the day trying to make tea feels as good in my mouth. It's like a junkie trying to chase that first high.
At the weekends I: am concerned first and foremost with getting my laundry done on a Saturday morning. Then it's off to the toy library to take back toys and get new ones, and I usually have to bribe Harper to leave the toy library with the prospect of a fluffy at the mall. The rest of the weekend is a melange of chores, cooking, gardening, visiting people, and going to the dump shop, all of which is done at Harper-speed or not at all depending on his mood. I often feel tireder on a Sunday night than I do on a Friday night.

Photo: A rare bit of by-myself-time at Madeira Park, British Columbia, late on a spring evening