A Day In The Life

This is my life in the lead-up to Christmas. I'll be giving a detailed account of how I spend my day. This is done for what I consider a good reason, which I will explain in my following post./

0600 Alarm goes off. Turn it off and go back to sleep.

0730 Struggle out of bed and make first coffee. Mess about on the computer, mostly playing Torn. Make second cup ot coffee.

0830: Chastise self for wasting time on a working day.  Cook breakfast: bacon, beans, mushrooms.

0905: Resume watching Brandon Sanderson lecture. Q&A about character. Although this course has not provided the very specific help I was looking for this time, it would be a waste not to finish it, and it's as good a way as any to spend my time while I wait for various events on other projects .  Brandon Sanderson's lectures are never a waste, and I hear some interesting points and add a note to my list for revisions of The Dragon and the Dairymaid, which I finished drafting in Octoner.

1000: Take a break to have a shower and get dressed. Yes, people, I've been working in my dressing gown. Hey, it was good enough for Hawkeye Pearce. Once I am all dressed and respectable, I go to make coffee number 4. Mittens, my feral friend, comes in for a late breakfast, so I spend some time with her and by the time I get back to my desk it is ten forty.

Mittens. 

10:40: resume Mr Sanderson's excellent lecture.

1045: lecture finishes. Take a reading break. I am reading Traitor's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian; it's really good. REALLY good.

1100: Go on Facebook to see if any of the people I'm waiting for to do things have responded. They haven't. Get sidetracked scrolling and give some good advice to a man who is grieving the loss of his cat - a sad little benefit from all the times my own heart has been broken, being able to do this.

1123: resume the Sanderson lectures. This next lecture is about publishing.

1200: call it a day. Waste a little time online and go to lunch. As my husband is away, I can't be arsed cooking, and eat random crap that I find in the refrigerator.

1230: Furpile. This too is a sad little occasion since both of our cats died this year. Once upon a time it had the spiritual punch of a cathedral. That was when there were five of us in the pile. Now only two of the original members survive. I used to connect to them all, feeling our energy surge back and forth and enrich us all. Now I just have a short, miserable sleep.

This is how it used to be. Now, only Aggie (centre) is still with us.

1415: I drag myself out and wash up the lunch things. There aren't many, because I was too lazy to cook.

14:30 Now it is time for my daily stint at Duolingo. I got the habit so strongly during my year and 9 months learning Italian that I found I didn't want to give it up, and now that I've finished the Italian course I'm going on with German, and refreshing my French on the side.

14:50 Twenty minutes is enough to accomplish a respectable amount of German, and it's not too hot today, so I can take Chips for a walk and needn't wait for the cool of the evening. That's good, because the longer the day wears on, the less energy I have. Already I'd rather lie about and sleep some more. But duty calls, and a dog must have his walk.

1518: By the time we get back, I am energised enough to attack Mount Ironmore. I've been nibbling away at this for days; the totality of it is far too much to contemplate at one time. Assisted by another really really good book on Audlble (To Visit The Queen, by Diane Duane), I give it my best yet again, and by four o'clock I've managed quite a respectable amount, although there is still plenty left.

1600: I have now reached the point where I can allow myself to relax with my book. The Aubrey and Maturin series is a good one, and I've enjoyed every one of the books up to this point, but this one is particularly fine; there seems more humour in it than is usual for O'Brian; perhaps room has been made for it by the welcome absence of rubbish about ships and naval battles.  I pause to clear up the accumulated glasses, coffee things etc, in the small kitchen, but quickly return to the sofa. I need to water the flowers on Emily's grave, but at five it is still too hot and I must wait for dusk, lest the plants be burnt.

1900: Three enjoyable hours later, it is now time to go to the kitchen for our dinner. I try to eat early these days, as I have read so many times that one sleeps better that way. Chips has minced pork and chicken wings. I have cold chicken and salad, and afterwards we sit on the front verandah for a while to enjoy the cool of the evening. I have a glass of my husband's port; Chips has water out of the stone bird bath, which he appears to consider a greater delicacy than the water from his beautiful ceramic bowl.

2000: After washing up and a few minutes to check my emails and messages, Chips takes himself for his evening constitutional, while I repair to the sitting room with my book.

2100: Once I've received my nightly phone call from Himself, I can repair to bed, to spend as much time as I can stay awake reading.

In my next post, I'll be sharing why I did this detailed log of my day, and what I've learned from it.