Thursday 29 December 2016

There shall be less wallowing

2017 needs to see significantly less wallowing. Reading this I expect many of you are thinking self pity. Though the level of self-inflicted injuries may partially determine that, what I’m actually talking about is wallowing around in bed. 2016 has been notable for a dramatic shift in my ability to get out of bed in the morning. It was bad before we got the electric blanket in the autumn, now it is just a disgrace. This morning would have been a wonderful time to be out on Wanstead Flats – a heavy frost, a clear day, it would be have been beautiful. As it was I lay under my duvet doing nothing other than wasting time. I wasn’t asleep, I was just wallowing in snuggly warmth. It was very nice of course, but I regret it, just as I regret most of the other mornings where I have done the same thing in preference to leaping out of bed and getting on with something worthwhile.

I mean even getting up and pottering around the house would be better than flopping in bed. I could water plants and check for bugs, I could fill up empty bird feeders, I could pick up things from the floor where the children have left them. I could do the recycling, I could clean the fish tank, I could unstack the dishwasher, I could crack on through my never-ending to-do lists…. I don’t have unstack the dishwasher on my to-do list by the way, that was just an example of the regular tedium that all of us have to bear, but doing useful tasks isn’t what I meant as an alternative to wallowing. Rather than tumble out of bed, shower and then head off to the salt mines, what I really want to do is go birding, go take photos in beautiful early morning light.

This is all feeling a little New Year’s Resolution-y. That’s not my intent either, but I really must pull my finger out. Part of the problem is that I go to bed too late, mostly as I am zapping around like a blue-arsed fly trying to maintain a thousand hobbies whilst simultaneously preventing Chateau L from descending into complete squalor. It does not help that I regularly get home at 8pm which doesn’t leave a lot of time for getting things done. I persevere of course, as I am spectacularly pig-headed and insistent that I will do everything. And then of course rather than a nice relaxing weekend which normal people use for catching up, I bugger off to foreign climes before the crack of dawn and return after dark on Sunday.


This is a state of affairs entirely of my own making. My own stupid fault. It has been like this for many years, and it means I am perpetually knackered, and that I – regretfully – really enjoy lying around in bed doing absolutely nothing. But for all my moaning, I genuinely really enjoy almost everything that I do which is why I can’t change the way things are. And the key thing that I do that I don’t enjoy is what unfortunately funds all of the other things…. so I had better get used it! Which of course I am after many years, being run off my feet is quotidian and I think I might miss it were it to stop. Imagine if I just took all of my plants to the tip, gave away my one remaining pair of binoculars, handed my passport in and sold my camera? What would I do all day? Stay in bed for a lot longer I expect!


No. I am determined that this will change. And fortunately the answer is close at hand and I don’t even need an alarm clock. Middle age and the tummy stuff I am on means that almost every day I now wake up at about 5am needing to go to the loo. At the moment I carefully replace the duvet to preserve the warmth before tiptoeing out. In future however I shall leave it cruelly cast aside and be forced to get dressed for warmth. And then I might go downstairs and make a nice cup of tea. I just need to avoid the sofa….

7 comments:

  1. Sounds like you need a good holiday. Is that something you might consider?

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    1. A holiday you say Ric? Now there's a thought...

      Seriously though, this comment really made me laugh, very droll !

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  2. C'mon Jono, there's plenty of time for wallowing when you're in your seventies with knee, hip and memory problems. Get out in the field, go birding, take photographs. To quote The Specials ... "enjoy yourself, it's later than you think".

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    1. 2017 might see me never leave the house without a camera, just see what I can do. I need to sate my create urges somehow. And probably not birds either as that takes time and planning for the best results.

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  3. Stop being so hard on yourself - you're doing someone else out of an opportunity! I think that Ric's right - you need a holiday!
    Have a great New Year - Dyl

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    1. Cheers Dyl, and you too! Today I managed to get up at 6.59am....and it was totally fogged out! So I plonked myself on a sofa had a mug of tea.

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  4. I'm not sure about holidays myself. My brother and sister have just returned from their respective outings and to all intents and purposes, they are shattered.
    I firmly believe there's a time when doing absolutely nothing is required.
    Ray Mears ran survival courses which were taken up by'blue chip' companies for their executives. Team building sort of an idea.
    Mears recognised that these guys were often at the end of their tether. They needed a break. Peace. And prolonged.
    So they made camp in the woods - collected wood, made a fire, put up a hammock and just did nothing for two weeks bar rest, feed the fire and eat.
    Supermen returned to work.
    Three weeks on jury service was my version - great!

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