I missed a day. Sorry about that. It would be nice to report that after leaving work on Saturday I became embroiled in writing and wasn’t able to find time to produce a blog post, but in fact I spent most of the time sleeping. I actually went to bed in the afternoon for about 4 hours. It was, I think, nature’s way of telling me to sleep more and get back to a sensible routine.
At the back of my mind I have an idea that I should be able to produce good work in the early hours of the morning when everything is quiet and there is nobody to disturb me. This was true at one time, but these days I tend to find that I don’t do anything worthwhile after midnight. All that happens is that after an hour or two of doing nothing useful I go to be, sleep badly and next day, find myself nodding off in the afternoon or evening.
At the moment I have three submissions to edit before sending them off, and two others to finish writing. I suppose that I can at least take pleasure from the fact that I have three ready. This is three more than I manged in either February or May, so it’s not all bad, even if it short of target. With two days to go I can still do a bit better, so I’ll get this finished and get to work.
Of course, as soon as I say that, the ideas stop. Julia just called me to remind me that we are going out tonight. We are going to a carvery. I had forgotten ll about it. If I’d remembered I would have cooked a smaller brunch.
Random photos, sorry, I have no inspiration. Two views of the red boat at Dunwich. One from last week, one from several years ago.
Red boat at Dunwich
I am definitely in favour of targets even though it is a bit dispiriting when you miss them. It is even more dispiriting not to have any aims in life.
We were discussing this last night. Once you are a billionaire we decided that you probably have to make up challenges, like going to see the Titanic in a glorified plastic dustbin or going into space sitting on top of 6,400 tonnes of rocket fuel.
I am going to stick to more modest targets. Get up, breathe, write a bit of poetry, have a bacon snadwich . . .
Regular hours seem to become ever more essential as we age. I, too, had never heard of a carvery.
Carveries are not as good as they sound. A few slices of roasted meat (beef, gammon or turkey – they seem to have stopped doing pork. Over-cooked vegetables left to soften under heat lamps. Greens that are often greyish. They are, however, reasonably priced, sociable and full of dietary fibre.
I thought of you twice today – once when sending postcards to Scarborough in Maine and once when watching a short film clip about lobsters. 🙂
Scarborough isn’t that far away from where I live. Within easy driving distance.
Is that an American “easy driving distance”? I’m always suspicious when one of you says something like that. 🙂
Tee-hee! Scarborough is a little over an hour away from where we live. How would you rate that?
OK, that’s easy driving distance. Our Scarborough is 2 1/2 hours away. 🙂
2 1/2 hours is a bit of a hoof, as we would say in Maine.
We could go to closer places but Scarborough and Whitby are our favourites. When we move we will have to get used to lesser resorts. Sigh . . .
Oh, dear! Perhaps I mentioned that quite a while ago, I stayed with friends in Whitby for several weeks? I loved that area. My heart’s home.
Yes, a fine place to visit. It must be possible to trace the arrival of English colonists by looking at the place names. I expect someone has done lready.
Are targets the problem?
Tricky question. I have no doubt that without targets I would never do anything. I am driven, if that isn’t too strong a word for it, by a desire to drift along grumbling and drinking tea.
Even with targets and a wife I rarely do much. 🙂
🙂 Ah – tea is the problem. My grandmother was told by her GP that she should reduce her 35 cups a day
🙂 That is a fine reword of tea consumption. Did you know Churchill explored the possibility of planting tea in the UK in case the U Boat blockade cut off supplies? He didn’t think we would cope well without it.
I didn’t know that. Personally I can cope very well without it.
Some people can. Some people like salad. It takes all sorts . . . 🙂
There is no substitute medicine for good regular sleep. Sleep can cure many ills, or at least make them more manageable. Take better care of yourself, Simon.
Yes, I know you’re right, but it’s so difficult to be sensible – I’m just not made like that. 🙂
I hope you enjoyed your evening out. Fortunately, you aren’t obliged to eat heaps of food at a carvery and only need to take what you want to eat. I have enjoyed seeing your Suffolk photos recently; somehow they remind me of home.
That’s a change I made about ten years ago Claire. I realised I could eat less and enjoy it more. I think it was an early sign that I was becoming wise. 🙂
I must apologise for my poor reading record, and even more for my poor commenting record.. I noticed you had been writing again last week but am still getting over the shock of finding that Elinor graduated. How did the time go so fast? When I have gathered my geriatric wits I will make some suitable comments. 🙂
I also need to apologise for my poor reading and commenting records. I have only been writing comments on other people’s posts very recently. I thought I could start blogging again during the spring but ‘life’ had other ideas, unfortunately. I think the last post I wrote was in May. Elinor’s time at university coincided with the pandemic and time slipped away without any of us realising it happened. 😉
One of mine turned 30 recently. I feel very old. 🙂
Oh, I know that feeling. Alice was 38 last month.
If I could do the picture of a yellow face with wide open eyes I would do it now. I’m sure she was still at Uni when I started reading your blog, admittedly doing a PhD, but still a student. :-0
Yes she was. She is now married, living in Sheffield and working at the University of Sheffield. She feels happier in academic surroundings having been at one university or another almost continuously for the past 19 years.
That’s right, I remember that bit now. They grow up so fast (as I swore I would never say!)
Certainly as your life and your body change, so will your prime working times. it’s good to be experimental and see what works now. Had to look up “carvery”. Sounds delicious.
Sorry, I don’t always know which words don’t travel well. It may sound delicious but the reality doesn’t always measure up. If you are fond of over-cooked vegetables you will love a carvery. I had brussels, green beans, cauliflower, parsnips, carrots and some sort of orange mash, so that’s the day’s vegetable quota taken care of, even before counting the baked beans, tomatoes and mushrooms we had for brunch. I feel quite virtuous. 🙂