When few are awake
- Travelling into a time zone that is ahead of our own lets us rise comfortably early. As the sky starts to change from inky blue, everything is calm and it is easy to imagine those who have already been up for a few hours, from the vendors in the market and the bakers pushing golden loaves into ovens to street cleaners sweeping away the dust of yesterday. From a hotel window we can survey the city as it stirs from sleep: at dawn, all is quiet and one can easily pick out single sounds before they get swallowed by the rush of the day – water tumbling over itself into the fountain, a robin calling to its mate, the far-off rumble of a city bus making its rounds. Like the solitary woman who wends her way to work or the man practising tai-chi in the clear light of a new day, we are alone with our thoughts, undistracted and undisturbed.
ACROSS THE BORED 