Tag Archives: sleep

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

A List, and a Letter I Will Never Send

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Next time I write a to-do list towards the end of the evening I am going to include Number Eight – fall asleep and sleep past midnight in my chair, Number Nine, wake up feeling like rigor-mortis has set in and Number Ten – make sandwiches in the early hours of the morning.

If I’d done that I would at least have achieved three of my objectives.

As it was, I didn’t even reach Number One – write sarcastic letter to TESCO. We had a delivery at just after 8.00.  It gives us time to relax and cook before bringing the shopping in from the door. There were no brown cobs with this delivery, and  a few other bits and pieces of omission or change that I found a little annoying, but that’s the price (plus £4.50 for packing and delivery) that you pay for not jostling with the germ-ridden denizens of our local supermarkets.

The prize for the most bizarre substitution ever, and the reason for my planned outburst of sarcasm.

It was going to be along the lines of –

FAO CEO TESCO

If you opened your sandwich box in the Executive dining room, looking forward to a lovely cheese cob, only to find a mere heap of cheese and pickle, because your grocery supplier couldn’t be bothered to supply any bread rolls, and had failed to find a suitable substitute, I bet you’d be disappointed, and wonder how people can stay in business if they can’t even supply bread rolls.

If you then reached for your delicious finale – an easy peel citrus (as they call small oranges these days) and bit into a lemon, I imagine you would become quite annoyed.

I am, I confess, more than quite annoyed that you substituted lemons for my order of easy peel citrus. I was tempted to pack one for my wife’s lunch to see what happened, but am, frankly, too frightened.

Remembering last week’s non-delivery debacle, I think I will be going back to ASDA. They are useless, but not quite as useless as you.

I am, yours etc…

Of course, I won’t send it. I never do…

 

The List (2)

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I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot to add that to the list, so it didn’t get done.

14. Warm up yesterday’s soup and eat with the remains of the sourdough bread from Lidl

15. Ruminate on the question of why a budget supermarket has the best bakery

16. Freecell

17. Look at list of jobs.

18. Look again. Are you sure it doesn’t mention Freecell?

19. Look again. Nineteen points in and only two of them are actually on the list.

20. Magazine article. It’s nearly done. An hour later it was still nearly done. Ditto for thirty minutes after that.

21. Let the article mature and go back to it tomorrow.

22. Alarm rings. Is it that time already? Time to pick Julia up.

23. Lose the plot and watch TV.

My performance was patchy in some areas but I think I really nailed Number 23. I’m going to try another list next week and see if I have similar success.

The Insomniac Diaries

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The clocks went back at the weekend, I’ve been getting more sleep and at 5am this morning the inevitable happened – my sleep levels overflowed and found I didn’t need any more.

Nature abhors a vacuum, as Aristotle said, and the space once filled with sleep was soon filled with worries. (I always thought that quote came from someone like Pope until I looked it up just now, strange how ideas develop over a lifetime and then turn out to be wrong.

He did, however, give us a little learning is a dangerous thing, which would tend to suggest that this blog could be fatal in the wrong hands, as Wikipedia and my education are both examples of ” little learning”. You need to study something like Classics at Oxford to be fully educated. Then you can become Prime Minister, like Boris Johnson.

I’m off to work now, but will leave you with that thought.

Sixteen Minutes

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I’ve not been sleeping well in the heat, though this difficulty seems to disappear if you stick me in front of the TV. As a consequence tonight has been spent watching quizzes, snoozing, wrestling with an automated bidding system, eating a delicious meal of sausages and Mediterranean vegetables and taking Number Two son to work.

That leaves me with sixteen minutes to write this post.

There was an interesting radio programme on tonight, about invasive species and Acclimatisation  Societies.  These societies were an aspect of imperialism that is still damaging things today.

The invasive species in UK include Zebra Mussels. Their main effect in the UK, according to the programme is that they colonise drains and water supply pipes and choke the water flow. Not a problem I’d ever thought of.

Three minutes to go. Phew!

 

Recovery

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I struggled manfully with cold all day. “Manfully”, in this context means sniffling, sneezing and whining.

I also took a relaxed attitude to work, looking a few things up, taking some photos and dealing with customers.

On the way back from work I stopped off at Sainsbury’s, parked, decided to listen to the chapter end of my audio book, and fell asleep for 45 minutes. Considering I was in bed for 14 hours last night I was surprised I needed more sleep.

After taking pills and eating a large helping of fish pie I am now feeling quite good. Naturally I am trying to conceal this from Julia as she seems happy serving me with cups of tea and stuff. It would be unkind of me to deprive her of the feeling of virtue that comes from looking after me.

The man who parked on our forecourt yesterday seems to have taken the hint and parked outside his own house. As he can’t park on the road he is blocking the footpath. Some people really don’t have much consideration for others.

I’m now deliberating whether to go to bed early (it’s 9.45) just just fall asleep in the chair. The chair is favourite, as I stand a chance of Julia waking me up with a cup of tea,

 

Sunset Today and Plans for Tomorrow

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I have a busy day planned for tomorrow. Drop Julia off at work, read some blogs and then head off to the launderette. I’ve searched out every scrap of clothing in the house and managed to last almost a month, but we now need clean clothes.

I also have to go shopping, take some photographs, research some posts, start the cooking for next week and sleep in front of the TV. That last one isn’t so much a plan as a statement of inevitability. Like white hair and wrinkles, it’s an unavoidable part of becoming an elderly gentleman. Women are different. Women are more industrious and less likely to snore through an entire episode of Bargain Hunt. Women are also more likely to spend their time in front of the TV rustling things during the quiet bits of programmes and talking over plot points. Well, I know at least one who is…

I tried taking pictures of sunset. As I left the supermarket the sky was quite dramatic. As I reached the car the light was fading. And as I started photographing, the camera “corrected” the sky despite me using several different settings to compensate. It may have been because there was so much light in the car park. Whatever the reason, the clouds should be darker, with fiery red showing through the cracks.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sunset over Basford

Ah well, time for bed now – back to our routine of early starts tomorrow.

Saturday

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I prepared Julia’s day this morning and laid it all out within arm’s length of her chair.

Remote control, Kindle, newspaper, flask of green tea, cereal, milk, sandwiches for lunch…

Then I slipped out to work and left her sleeping. Sleep is a greatly underrated as a curative measure and she generally resists it as she thinks it’s being lazy. She also believes that the best way to deal with a bad back is to work it off, and we all know how that worked out.

I think it comes from being a mother. Mothers, like ideas and the Pinkerton Detective Agency, never sleep.

Me, I have no problem with sleeping, and often take a preventive nap in front of the TV. Sometimes I take several, because you can’t be too careful with your health.

In fact I’m going to go to sleep now.

Henry Ford said: “I never stand if I can sit and I never sit if I can lie down.”

I tend to agree with this as a philosophy, though I’m not going to adopt all his ideas.