Two nights ago I made a special effort to get plenty of sleep, because it’s good for me. When I woke up I felt like I was paralysed. My normal creaky, slightly painful bad back (partly caused by our mattress – which will soon be replaced) ws locked solid, as were my neck and shoulders. Even lifting my arms was painful. It took me over and hour to get up and I spent most of the day in a chair with two hot water bottles. By the late afternoon I was much recovered and went to be early again, with the intention of not staying in bed so long. Six hours seems optimal. Eight hours tends to cause more problems than it solves.
We are having a new mattress delivered to the bungalow next week,so that will be an end to another of life’s little annoyances.
However, after a night of cold draughts, resulting in me grasping the bedding firmly and pulling it around me, I woke up with both hands aching. It’s only a minor ache in each joint, but there are 27 joints in a human hand and I can tell you where most of them are. It’s not actually painful, but if I ever need to write a passage about a robot spending a century underwater and then rising to the surface to flex his cold and corroded fingers I feel that I have done the research.
A creaking gate -both a metaphor and a way of stopping livestock escaping.
Then I tried ordering some more bits for the bungalow. After half an hour and a “chat” with customer services, it turns out that although I am paying for the delivery I have no say over which day it is delivered. That isn’t, as I told them, a lot of use when I am two hours away from the delivery address.
Then the documents arrived from the solicitor – cost over £1,000. Typo on the first page, typo on one of the tax pages. Only small errors (though there may be more to the trained eye) but at that price there should be no errors.
So, after light at the end of the tunnel, another couple of days to add to my thousand cuts. But it’s moving.
And I have worked out a way to outwit the delivery system at Dunelm. I will just have to see if it works next week.
Photos are random punctuation. I think I have some pictures of rust and creaking gates . . .
Snowy Detail
