Propping my eyes open …

Very little sleep last night – we were back very late from Pulborough Brooks and didn’t actually hit the pillows till gone midnight (it’s an hour’s drive from home). However, we did manage to see a whitethroat, a chiffchaff and a woodcock, as well as the spoonbill still on the Brooks, plus an assortment of finches and the usual suspects. And we heard nightingales and – result! – nightjars and saw a woodcock. Fabulous. So it’s worth the pain today then, and makes the nightmare of yesterday a tad more manageable. Just a tad though.

Really, I’m simply hoping to get through today without having a crisis or bursting into tears, because I am sooooooo tired and rather down, and just want to go to bed and sleep for a week. And try to do some ruddy writing, goddammit.

So this morning, I’m struggling through writing up Tuesday’s set of very confusing minutes – with a sad lack of emotional interest, I must say – plus sorting out the final draft of another set of the darn things. With the joys of yet another meeting to minute waiting for me this afternoon – which explains why I’m in on a Thursday. Sigh. Is there no end to the excitement? A girl just can’t take the thrill of it all, you know. Mind you, I am cheating slightly and as the same discussion which we had on Tuesday is due to be presented again today – to different people – I’ve copied the minutes I took earlier and am hoping I can just use them instead of writing it out all over again. Lordy, but I’m a cunning toad sometimes.

Still, I did manage a rather pleasant walk round campus at lunchtime – I’ve discovered that if I move slowly, keep eating little and often, and don’t raise my voice at all then my head doesn’t throb quite as much. My, but Lord H is in for a civilised night tonight.

Although, that said, the middle neighbour has called a conference this evening about our downstairs neighbour who isn’t very well at the moment (is anybody??) – but I’m sending Lord H as my supply of Good Works Production is running extremely low at the moment. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I have to be the nice one on the block, after all. I’ll pitch in, of course, but let the menfolk sort out the mechanics of care for once. Heck, it’ll do them good. UPDATE: things are better than we'd hoped apparently, hurrah! But the universe giveth and the universe taketh away: my golfing partner, Marian, is now not very well, so no golf tomorrow and I'll await an update on whether she's visitable or not. Mind you, as I am obviously the Kiss of Death to friends' health, perhaps she's better off without me! I am battening down the hatches to society and keeping a close eye for signs of fever on Lord H ...

I’ll also be watching “Springwatch” to see if anything has fledged yet. And I’m desperately hoping to be able to do a sentence or two of the novel, just to see if I can still type. Or maybe I’ll just nap – I’m beginning to think that may be the more sensible option ...

Today’s nice things:

1. TV
2. Being at home this evening.
3. Not having to Do Good Works - at least for one day.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers