Junkie

 

Hi. My name is Rick. I'm a words junkie.

Except when I'm talking with D-L (http://theexpatwriter.blogspot.com/), and sometimes even then, I'm reading something - online, magazines, books, the news crawl on the bottom of the TV screen.

Absorbing information, certainly, is part of my work as an aviation journalist. So I have a slew of email newsletters flowing in on the latest about Airbus and Boeing, airlines, airports, security, training, regulations, etc. Most of them have links to longer stories, detailed reports to download, and now of course webinars everywhere. (As a general rule, I don't like to watch videos - too slow, no option for speed-reading.) During the virus pan-panic, as you can imagine, there's a ton of information, misinformation, speculation and conjecture - as with most topics in this digital era. I know more than most about what's going on in the aviation world, but no I cannot tell you if EasyJet will resume flights to Perpignan this summer, if ever.

I now usually start my morning - after Sherlock's early-hours ritual - crawling back under the toasted covers, using my phone screen to check overnight developments through Drudge Report, with a quick glance at multiple email accounts and Facebook posts (mostly to read new comments from friends). D-L is often next to me reading a book or New Yorker magazine (which, when she's done with, she transfers to the bathroom for me to read at my leisure). Business done, Sherlock has probably tunneled under the duvet.

While eating breakfast at the coffee table, I flip on the telly and switch through CNN, BBC, France24, CNBC, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, and SkyNews. Maybe a brief stop on the Israeli news station, 1-24.

Once my day officially starts, I fire up the computer and read the email feeds in detail, as well as scrolling some LinkedIn, Twitter and FB. Like the Easter Bunny, I may throw some story links of interest to colleagues.

Online, we now have subscriptions to the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, The Atlantic and Connexion (for Anglophones in France) as well as some aviation pubs.

In addition to Drudge - who, by the way, is no longer the conservative maven he once was (he posts plenty of things for Trump to seethe about) - I read a journo feed called Muck Rack, which links to timely features I may not have seen anywhere. Also a newsletter feed called Next Draft, written by a Bohemian San Franciscan who provides his own smarmy commentary along with a link to news stories.

Sometime during the morning, Sherlock will want laptime, so I sit on the couch, legs up on the coffee table to give him more room to stretch out, while I work on my French lessons.

Of course, there are also to-dos such as preparing bank information for the tax preparers (Swiss, French and US), ordering paperback and Kindle books D-L and I would like to read, researching flights to here and there (it will happen again), checking the status of hickory golf tournaments around Europe, and studying Swiss history, geography and culture in anticipation of my citizenship interview.

She is finishing proofreading and editing of a new novel, DayCare, which I proofed a short time ago. I'm also sporadically proofing some of her previously published novels, for which we have bought back the rights and plan to re-publish soon - starting with Murder in Argelès (https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Argeles-Third-Culture-Kid-Mystery/dp/1432825518/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mURDER+IN+aRGELES&qid=1588322405&sr=8-1).

After we get in bed, if we don't immediately fall asleep, I'll read a chapter or three in a novel. Recently Hemingway, queen-of-crime Val McDermid, a new author (to me) Mark Billingham, and the acclaimed Italian thriller, The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi, which had some good writing but the multiple twists at the end seemed rather contrived.

Without golf, travel and café-sit people-watching during the lockdown, about the only times I'm not immersed in words are walking the dog, preparing lunch (we alternate days), and sleeping. (Then again, there are words, conversations, in some of my dreams ... and I do talk to the dog ... and look at print outs of recipes while cooking - so pretty much words 24/7.)

From 2020