Good morning. As part of this whole trying to transform my life endeavour, one of my strategies is to start trying to get some early nights, the reason for this is that when you "hit the hay" at a decent time rather than keeping to the sleep times of some delinquent rock band, you are far more likely to feel refreshed come the dreaded cacophony of the alarm.
This obviously has all of those benefits that your parents used to list in order to con you into climbing up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire (what...Seriously!).
So upon waking yesterday I decreed with all the confidence I could muster,
"I am having an early night".
My partner concurred that it was probably a great idea and said that she would be following suit, (I'm such a trend setter).
So with these plans set in proverbial stone, beyond the slings and arrows of any mortal man and regally placed upon a pedestal far above interference by all but the Gods themselves, at around 10.15 pm I decided to let our dog Holly have her last run round the garden before setting off on my laser focused, unbending, trajectory up the stairs and directly to my bed.
At this point my partner Terry, (She doesn't like her name being spelled the male way, so don't mention it as She's quite sensitive about it), noticed our neighbour Joyce on her doorstep taking in a little night air on closer inspection she seemed to be a little short of breath and as she is an octogenarian, (Yeah I've got the words...don't look so surprised), and she suffers from asthma and C.O.P.D, okay I'll tell you if you really wanna know, it stands for
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease- Symptoms include, severe shortness of breath, low oxygen movement in the body and narrowing of the airways
We thought we should check her over properly and ask her how serious the attack felt for our own "peace of mind" before we went to bed. I should mention that Joyce is far more than just a neighbour to us, she is a "bloody good friend", and far more like family. We have lived next door to her for almost 20 years now and couldn't be happier with the arrangement. She has always been so independent and has a great outlook on life, never moans and is always there for us too.
Well the next 5 hours consisted of, phone calls, ambulances, nebulisers, doctors, blood tests and me walking to the hospital, (my partner Terry had travelled in the ambulance with Joyce), with Joyce's nightwear, slippers, wash bag and all of the other pre-requisites that a night or 2 in hospital requires, I walked there because If you have read my previous posts, you will know that our car is having a new gearbox fitted (grrr!), and this hasn't left a lot of spare cash sitting around to pay for taxi cabs!
The point of this whole convoluted, drawn out digression of a story is...
As we walked home from the hospital post 3am after seeing Joyce to the ward where she would spend the night, my partner Terry looked at me and said...
"DON'T YOU DARE, EVER PLAN AN EARLY NIGHT AGAIN"
And I had to agree that in life things seldom go too awry, when we just plod along from day to day, but it seems like the second you pro-actively start making plans to do set things to a set timescale, the fates look down and say...
"Oh no, we can't allow life be too easy, where would the fun be in that?"
I don't think they do it in a malicious way, I think they are subjecting us to a kind of initiation into the world of the productive. It's a little like saying if you can deal with the obstacles, take a few knocks and still come back resolute and with a desire to make the world bend to your will..."YOU'RE IN"
We still want to have a better sleep routine and we going to try and apply this little improvement to our lives, we are just not quite so vocal about shouting our plans from the rooftops or in earshot of the fates.
Joyce is home today, almost back to herself, reminding us that "golden friendships" are worth a few sleepless nights.
Steven ; )
This obviously has all of those benefits that your parents used to list in order to con you into climbing up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire (what...Seriously!).
- Your body has enough time for much needed regeneration.
- Your brain power, focus and concentration are enhanced.
- Your mood and general mental health receive a boost, In my case, a much needed boost!
- You are generally more "well rounded" and emotionally balanced, and have more capacity for optimism.
So upon waking yesterday I decreed with all the confidence I could muster,
"I am having an early night".
My partner concurred that it was probably a great idea and said that she would be following suit, (I'm such a trend setter).
So with these plans set in proverbial stone, beyond the slings and arrows of any mortal man and regally placed upon a pedestal far above interference by all but the Gods themselves, at around 10.15 pm I decided to let our dog Holly have her last run round the garden before setting off on my laser focused, unbending, trajectory up the stairs and directly to my bed.
At this point my partner Terry, (She doesn't like her name being spelled the male way, so don't mention it as She's quite sensitive about it), noticed our neighbour Joyce on her doorstep taking in a little night air on closer inspection she seemed to be a little short of breath and as she is an octogenarian, (Yeah I've got the words...don't look so surprised), and she suffers from asthma and C.O.P.D, okay I'll tell you if you really wanna know, it stands for
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease- Symptoms include, severe shortness of breath, low oxygen movement in the body and narrowing of the airways
We thought we should check her over properly and ask her how serious the attack felt for our own "peace of mind" before we went to bed. I should mention that Joyce is far more than just a neighbour to us, she is a "bloody good friend", and far more like family. We have lived next door to her for almost 20 years now and couldn't be happier with the arrangement. She has always been so independent and has a great outlook on life, never moans and is always there for us too.
Well the next 5 hours consisted of, phone calls, ambulances, nebulisers, doctors, blood tests and me walking to the hospital, (my partner Terry had travelled in the ambulance with Joyce), with Joyce's nightwear, slippers, wash bag and all of the other pre-requisites that a night or 2 in hospital requires, I walked there because If you have read my previous posts, you will know that our car is having a new gearbox fitted (grrr!), and this hasn't left a lot of spare cash sitting around to pay for taxi cabs!
The point of this whole convoluted, drawn out digression of a story is...
As we walked home from the hospital post 3am after seeing Joyce to the ward where she would spend the night, my partner Terry looked at me and said...
"DON'T YOU DARE, EVER PLAN AN EARLY NIGHT AGAIN"
And I had to agree that in life things seldom go too awry, when we just plod along from day to day, but it seems like the second you pro-actively start making plans to do set things to a set timescale, the fates look down and say...
"Oh no, we can't allow life be too easy, where would the fun be in that?"
I don't think they do it in a malicious way, I think they are subjecting us to a kind of initiation into the world of the productive. It's a little like saying if you can deal with the obstacles, take a few knocks and still come back resolute and with a desire to make the world bend to your will..."YOU'RE IN"
We still want to have a better sleep routine and we going to try and apply this little improvement to our lives, we are just not quite so vocal about shouting our plans from the rooftops or in earshot of the fates.
Joyce is home today, almost back to herself, reminding us that "golden friendships" are worth a few sleepless nights.
Steven ; )
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