Tbilisi goes to sleep

Seemed like a good idea, sleeping on the balcony, since the landlord's bed had appeared a few days ago. And it's an absolutely brilliant place - on the balcony, behind a curtain of vines with ripening grapes, overlooking the lights of the city with the lit-up cathedral, while at the same time seeing the lit up windows of the neighbours...

Took a bit of organising to protect myself against the midges, as well as protecting my modesty. But off to bed I wandered at around 11 pm. No place for reading a book, of course, what with the light attracting the mozzies.

Now the rhythm of life in Tbilisi is different, as indicated by the starting time for work at 10 am, when people rush into the office fresh from the shower. This has an effect at the end of the day in terms of going to bed. And this was a Friday night.

First the boys stopped playing basketball in the street, then the immediate neighbours switched off and went to bed; the other neighbours watched TV till about 1.30 am, after that the neighbours on the other side were still chatting and laughing away - ours must be the only house that is only inhabited by one nuclear family, no grannies, no multi-generational arrangements. It all sounded very happy. Since it's hot, windows are open so things were clearly audible. No privacy here! All this was underpinned by the constant roar of the motorway. Er no, make that the main street, Rustaveli Avenue, which has a number of underpasses for good reasons. Which country is it that has a new advertising campaign against boy racers, suggesting that they do so because they have a small penis? Australia? Someone complained that you could not suggest the same thing about women, eg having small breasts. (Let's see what this does to my hit rates...)

It was very pleasant, since I did not have to go to work, did not understand the conversation and just let it wash over me. But did I sleep? Did I heck! Must have drifted off early in the morning, but the first neighbours got up again at 6.....It'll be indoors tonight!