Tag Archives: sleep

Thought for the Day

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I just looked up “Thought for the Day”, because I am, I confess, running dry. Not only am I having difficulty writing, I’m having difficulty finding an idea to write about. It was a disaster.

There are sites that offer you thoughts (though “thought” may be exaggerating the level of the material offered) – “be the rainbow to someone’s cloud” sticks in my mind. Apart from the false emotion it invokes, I’m not sure that clouds and rainbows are linked.

Then there is the discussion of Thought for the Day. I always used to listen to it in the morning, but gradually drifted out of the habit. I can’t tell you the last time I listened to it, and was surprised it was still on. I suppose this shows some sort of coarsening of my spiritual life.

We had a good result at work today. Someone in Malaysia, who obtained a  refund from us for two parcels which disappeared into the system after the Royal Mail cyber attack, got his parcels. He had them eight days ago, to be precise. Somehow, in all the excitement, he forgot to tell us and arrange payment.

Fortunately, I remembered to make one of my regular checks on missing parcels,  and we were able to remind him. We’ve had no word from him yet, but eBay, when informed, repaid us. There’s still time for them to change it (nothing is ever as simple as it seems with eBay) but it looks like we have solved that one.

They don’t all work out that well, but it’s nice to win one for a change.

The strange thing about this evening, is that I arrived home full of energy and enthusiasm for work. I really did. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. I’m going to have to work on keeping the enthusiasm going – part of it, I’m afraid, consists of not sitting in front of a TV quiz show as soon as I get home.

I tell myself that it sharpens my mind, but I’m afraid it also switches me off. After reading this article, I’m going to rethink my evening  activity. I say “activity” – this probably gives a wrong idea of the average evening, where my movement is often confined to walking to the kettle and several hours a night feature me falling asleep around 11.00 when I really should be going to bed.

Framework Knitters Museum – Manager’s Bedroom

The pictures? I looked up “sleep” and got the cat. Then I looked up “bed”. One reedbed, several “raised beds” and this . . .

There were no entries for “TV”, which is a start.

 

Two Mysteries

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The first is, how can I sleep so long? And how can I fall asleep in the middle of a TV programme I am interested in? I’m not sure about this, but after discussing it for more than 200 words I have come to the conclusion that it’s a mystery but it’s not very interesting, so I have edited heavily, using the “Delete” function. Old age and bad habits are probably at the root of things, so I will leave it at that.

The second mystery is my stats.Three days ago I had 41 views, 23 visitors, 15 likes and 12 comments. It’s about average. Obviously I would like to be more popular, but that might involve being nicer, or more interesting, and that’s not really my natural area.

Two days ago I managed 1,016 views, 24 visitors, 9 likes and 8 comments. That’s about average, apart from the views.

Things were moving back to normal by yesterday, with just 732 views (yes, “Just” 732 views – how soon I got used to fame and stratospheric numbers!) The blog had normal figures, with 15 visitors, 4 likes and 8 comments.

Then today, at 10.00, I have 317 views with 10 visitors, 2 likes and 9 comments.

I have a view on the Visitors, Likes and Comments figures – they are quite good for a blog that details the daily meanderings of a dull middle-aged man through modern life. Originally I had hoped for fame and fortune through blogging, but once it became clear that people want to read about food, handbags and the vacuous musings of “influencers” I resigned myself to a life of quiet mediocrity.

So there we have it. Not the greatest mystery in the world, but a mystery all the same.

For the erst of the day I will be occupying myself with medallions, poetry and snoozing in front of the TV. It’s not an exciting life, but it’s a niche that needs filling.

The picture is a clue to my puzzle-solving strategy.

 

 

 

Politics . . .

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Sorry, I fell asleep in front of the TV last night, woke just after midnight and decided to go to bed. I was upstairs when i remembered I hadn’t blogged or made Julia’s sandwich for lunch. Such was my desire to sleep that I resigned myself to the consequences and went to sleep. Fortunately she is very forgiving.

Yesterday was a strange day as I had to drive to Leeds to deliver empty boxes. Number One Son is moving to Norfolk at the end of the month and we have a large number of empty boxes (all flattened). It seems sensible to get as much use out of them as possible, though I’m not sure if the planet benefits from me driving that far just  to re-use cardboard boxes.

I’m currently watching the news. King Charles visited Wales today and several groups were demonstrating – variously supporting Welsh independence and republicanism.  They are entitled to their views. Whether they are showing themselves in a good light by shouting at a man who has just lost his mother is a different matter. One academic, speaking on the subject, referred to the “subjugation of Wales by the English monarchy”. That took place in 1283. I’m pretty sure Queen Elizabeth II didn’t do a great deal of subjugation. It might be time to let it go, after all,  I’ve forgiven the Romans, the Vikings and the Normans for invading us.

If you want an independent state you might be better entering politics than complaining about a 900 year old military defeat. I was about to mention I was thinking of starting a Mercian Independence Party, but I notice there are at least two organisations already devoted to restoring Mercian independence.. Before its subjugation by Wessex, Mercia had a fine history, including inventing the English penny and digging a ditch to separate itself from Wales. It also currently has a population around three times that of Wales, making it the 85th largest country in the world.

 

Day 205

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I’m a day behind again, but at 3am this morning, when I woke up in my chair I decided to go to bed. Normally I would write the blog,  make sandwiches and generally wake myself up. This time I just went to bed. Four hours later I was wrenched from my bed by a strange dream about a lack of toilet facilities. Do you ever get that one. I frequently do. I then wake up and realise the way out of my dream is to visit the toilet. One day, I suppose, I will wake up after dreaming that I found a toilet. At that point it will be time to move into a home.

The day was OK, and featured quite a decent rainstorm around mid-day, which cleaned the roads and made things a lot cooler.

Comma

Oh, and the computer broke. It went off and when I restarted it kept flashing “Fan Error”. We rang the man who does our computer stuff and he advised us to take the cover off and clean the dust off the fans. We could only find one fan, but we dusted it off and the computer worked again.

On the way home I tried the new roadworks. They were supposed to start on 1st August for a month (oh joy!) but seem to have started already. I tried an alternative route last week, just to see how it went, and that has a set of roadworks on it too. It wasn’t a total success as an alternative route. The normal route with additional roadworks wasn’t too bad, but traffic was light and I imagine it could get hot and unpleasant as the year goes on.

Small Copper

I’m not sure much happened apart from that. It has a tendency to be like that – a chat about Julia’s day, a little TV, a snooze, cook tea (we had pork steaks with roasted veg) and a bit more TV. I had more things planned but my head switched off, which takes us back to the first line.

Common Blue at Screveton

I thought I’d use some butterfly photos- I like butterflies but there have not been many about recently. It was hard finding them. I searched “butterfly” and only two photos came up, and one of them was a coin. Fortunately I realised that I must have titled them with the species, so was able to call more up.

 

 

 

Crepuscular rays at Rufford Park

Back to Normal

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Things are about back to normal now. I am still sticking to one sandwich for lunch and work seems OK, though I’m still having difficulty remembering where things are. This isn’t helped by the fact that the owner decided to “tidy up” while we were all off (he spent some of his isolation time working in the shop), Why he thinks that moving stock into random places without telling anybody is an improvement, I do not know. However, it’s his time he’s wasting, not mine.

My legs are still a bit weak after weeks of enforced rest but I am making progress on that.

I struggled to submit anything in September, but did manage a few things (mainly things that were already written and just needed tidying). I have three poems in Cattails this month – pages 86, 89 and 133 if you fancy a look.

I have also had acceptances from three other magazines (though only one will be available online) and will no doubt mention it again when it is published.

At one point, when I was really struggling to string words together, I actually thought I’d run to the end and would never write again. Fortunately that passed off after a week, as I don’t know what I’d do to replace it. At the moment I’m not writing much because I mainly work, eat, watch TV and go to bed early. I’m still sleeping off the Covid.

It is probably time to prepare a plan to make sure I spend my time wisely. However, for now I will just sleep.

 

 

Nothing Much of Note

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I nearly fell asleep at work today. In fact, if I’m accurate I did fall asleep several times, but only for seconds at a time.  No window, no ventilation and nothing to keep my interest (I was entering long lists of dull coins onto eBay) and the result was easy to foresee. I kept jerking into wakefulness and not quite knowing where I was in the process. This is not what they pay me for, so I should do better.

The first part of my evening was spent asleep in a chair and the second part was spent making and eating salad. It’s time to get back to a sensible diet. I have an appointment in a month’s time and my weight is likely to come up in the discussion. I would liken it to the elephant in the room, but that would merely emphasise my tendency to excess poundage. perhaps I should begin dressing in grey.

Very little of note has happened. I have organised a day off so that I can take Julia to a training course (Mencap seems to think everyone has a car and can travel 20 miles across country by 9am). That has been the only thing of note.

I’ve been loking at houses in Country Life on-line. It’s not a good thing to do. I note several of them have cinema rooms. I have enough problems staying awake in an armchair in the light. Put me in a cinema chair in the dark and no good will come of it . . .

A Mixed Day Trip

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Sorry, I’ve had a distinct lack of application over the last week. A lot of it is probably due to lack of sleep, followed by lack of focus. This leads to a lack of writing, and that will never do. I have written some bits but on a couple of occasions I have then fallen asleep at the computer and woken after midnight with 150 words done and nothing actually finished.

We went to the Yorkshire coast, finishing at Scarborough yesterday. Although it was open, and even crowded in places, there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm as couples with white knees exposed themselves to the weak Yorkshire sun and looked glum. I expect many of them wanted to be abroad.

Saltburn was pretty as ever, but full, as was Sandsend. We went round Whitby and called at the Botham bakery on the edge of town (the main tearoom only being open to people who book, and we hadn’t been organised enough. We had a pork pie to tide us over (it was getting a bit late by then) and bought pies and cake to eat during the week when we got home. We then drove down through then moors and had fish and chips on the front at Scarborough. They aren’t the best fish and chips, as I may have mentioned before, but it is probably one of the best sites for a chip shop I’ve ever eaten in – nestled under the cliffs and castle, and just yards from the sea.

A Botham Pork Pie – one of the best

Chips. A bit greasy, but generally OK

As I have probably said before, one of the main casualties of the virus is going to be spontaneity, as there’s a lot more booking to be done when visiting. I don’t know about you but when I’m away from work I like to relax. That means having a broad plan like “afternoon tea at Botham’s or “visit X”. It’s not about booking afternoon tea for 3.30 or visiting X by timed ticket ay 10.45.

If it had have been we would have been in trouble, because one of the engine management lights came on as we left home. The garage had a look at it for me and sorted within 20 minutes, but it was all time lost when we should have been travelling to the coast. It would not have been half as relaxing if I had had a timetable to keep to.It’s going to be  along time before I get the hang of relaxing again, as I found myself getting annoyed by the alck of distancing whilst queuing for the chips. Some people just ignored the flow system and the six foot rule, even though there are a lot of signs about. Yorkshire seems a lot more concerned about this than Nottingham for instance. A lot of the people who ignored the signs had kids with them – I can only assume they are happy to bring their kids up as selfish louts.

Home via the Humber Bridge

Melodrama and a Little Light Snoozing

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Oh dear! I fell asleep in front of the TV tonight, and woke up after midnight. This is becoming a bit of a habit. Hopefully I will get things back to normal soon.

I got side-tracked last night and forgot to post. I couldn’t really think of anything to post and managed to fil my time with reading blogs instead of writing. Eventually I realised it was after midnight. Same applies tonight. I have filled my time with things and am finding it difficult to find anything to write about.

I spent twenty minutes thinking and rewriting before going to watch The Coroner on cach-up. That lasted from 9.00 to 10.00, at which point I seem to have fallen asleep. I’m not feeling particularly funny tonight, or historical or poetic, so that’s all out. I’m not even enthusiastic enough for a decent rant, even though a few things came close to setting me off during the day. I put it down to the weather, and the fact that the year is near enough over. Today is the longest day and as far as I’m concerned that means it’s all downhill from here. All I can think is “Dead and never called me Mother!”

It does seem like the poor little orphaned year has died without having a chance to come to life. No lockdown of any consequence, and no freedom or enthusiasm either. It’s just a nothing sort of year.

I suppose that after trying 63 different years, it was inevitable that I would end up with one that wasn’t particularly thrilling. Even then, if I’ve wanted to feel a frisson of danger all I needed to do was select a supermarket and walk close to somebody who wasn’t wearing a mask. Imagine that, a world where going out to buy bread can be a potentially fatal experience.

Anyway, I will post now, so at least I won’t miss blogging on Tuesday.

 

The End of the Day

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Julia just woke me up with the words “You’ve done it again.”

She has, it seems, spent the last two hours in the company of a man who has been resting his eyes, and another evening has passed. Even the offer of a Club biscuit, which I found alongside my cold cup of tea, had failed to persuade me to open my eyes.

Looking on the bright side, I will be well rested when I get up tomorrow morning and head off for my latest blood test.

Today did not continue in the useful way of yesterday. I fell at the first hurdle. My initial to do list contained one item – write a to do list – and I failed to do that.

At work I packaged items which had only been listed on Tuesday. It is strange how things sell. Three of the items were newly listed – one of them had been listed for 18 months (the market for Edward VIII Coronation keyrings does not seem strong). You just can’t tell.

My first task, after seeing off the biscuit, was to make sandwiches. It is sandwich-making at its simplest – open a cob,  butter it, insert a cheese slice and add pickle – but it is also at its finest. The classic simplicity of a cheese and pickle sandwich is hard to beat. We had tomatoes in it today, but I don’t feel up to slicing tomatoes tonight. It is a technical job and not one well-suited to a man who is half asleep.

The same could be said for blogging, but I seem to have managed…

Slight, but discernible progress

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Today has been quite a tidy type of day. I haven’t achieved a lot but I have neatened things up a bit.

One, Julia is now fully vaccinated against Covid. It all went very smoothly, though we were caught in  a traffic jam on the way back. The UK seems to be doing reasonably well in getting plenty of people vaccinated. So far she doesn’t seem to be experiencing any side effects, but we will see what happens tomorrow.

Two, the internet grocery order is in. I have just been finalising the last few bits and pieces. I made it a priority this morning, and set an alarm on my phone to make sure I was awake to make a couple of minor adjustments before the deadline. There is always something you remember at the last minute.

Three, I consulted a website about sustainable fish before ordering for this week.

Four, I used the photo from Thinking After Midnight for my biography photo, despite Google’s comments on images that look like that. I’m not going to be the only one that is using a slightly flattering and out of date picture.

Five, I will, after doing this one, have posted three times today, making up for deficiencies in the last week or two.

Six, I have made slight, but discernible, progress in preparing submissions.

Seven, after a good night’s sleep I seem to be regaining a little creativity. Sleep, I think, is the key. I must do more sleeping and less staying up at night.

Eight, I found one of my watches and got a new battery fitted. I am now equipped to re-enter the rat race. This is a shame, because life with no watch is quite relaxing.

Nine, I just remembered that I have completely forgotten to fill up the car and put air in the tyres as planned for today. Ah well, not as tidy as I thought…

Ten, sandwiches are made and overnight oats are maturing in the fridge.

Time for an early bed (see Point 7).

Grape Hyacinths