One day in the life of a Moaning Minnie
If you wake at 6.30 you have had a good night, bar interruptions, but if you wake at 4.00 am then you will find that you cannot sleep any more until it is time to get up when you would love to stay in bed until you really feel like getting up. Anyhow you force yourself to rise and wash and dress and have a cup of tea in case someone rings the doorbell, but nobody ever does except the milkman once a week when you are usually visiting the loo, this can be embarrassing.
Then you get your meagre breakfast and plan to be eating it by 9.00 am with a bit of news. This can be interesting, or boring, or upsetting as it has been lately. Then you try to read the paper and the excess literature which you discard, it is a rare treat to find a letter from an old friend, people do not write these days.
The paper does not cheer you up much by the time you run through the list of murders, rapists, joy rider kills, divorces etc., and politics seems to consist of each party slamming at one another, you begin to wonder how we ever get governed at all and not ending in fighting each other like some other countries do.
You read the latest news about what used to be Yugoslavia where different parties all believe in one God but they fight for the right to live with people who worship in the same way this one God. Consequently they rape and torture and kill, and the women and children flee from one place to another, or they starve in spite of the U.N. humanitarian aid which is usually prevented in one way or another.
Thank goodness the papers have stopped talking about Somalia and showing us pictures of the dreadful starving children there, it is more than one can bear. The Americans cannot stay there forever and it will happen all over again when they leave.
After eating and glancing at papers you wash up your few utensils and make your bed, wash a few articles of clothing, and by that time you want to sit down again, so read a bit more rubbish, then decide to dust the room, which does not really need it but it is something to do.
Then you prepare some scraps for the birds and throw it out and get furious again because the seagulls will swoop down and pinch it all, so you tap on the window and watch the starlings rush down and have a go, this goes on between them for some time with magpies creeping in the background and a black crow watching from the tree tops.
After that episode you try and think of something else to do, and if there is somebody you can write to, all is well and good, otherwise you have to make something up like this.
With luck it could be 12.00 noon by then so you feel it might not be too early to eat a little something and maybe have a cup of hot milk, because tea is barred. So you turn the radio on hoping for some nice soothing music, but it is usually Mozart or Haydn, not my favourite, or you put up with Pebble Mill, which varies, and another dose of news.
Then with a sigh you cover yourself with a rug and lie back in your chair and doze, but it must be a little one or you will not sleep at night.
When you wake up there is the joy of having a much needed cup of tea and a slice of cake if any, a little luxury which is not good for you. Then there is the gap between 3.00 and 5.00 to fill which is extremely difficult, too early to settle down with needlework, that’s for the evening. It is the right time for conversation but there is nobody to converse with. I miss Joan once a week, and rare visits from Liz or Chris and Shirley, but having Paul one day recently was just right, he explained all about his job, training young students and assessing them, good luck to him.
Then of course there is my dinner to prepare and eat, very simple and is eaten in about ten minutes. With television on, more news, just the same, and not very interesting programs, takes about an hour. Then wash up unless there is something really good or funny to look at, which I enjoy, and a long sit down with my tapestry for about three hours, bit hard on the eyes, but relaxing and the best part of the day.
One day in the life of a Moaning Minnie
THE ALTERNATIVE VERSION (LESS WOE)
If you wake at 6.30 you have had a good night, bar interruptions, but if you wake at 4.0 am then you will find that you cannot sleep any more until it is time to get up when you would love to stay in bed until you really feel like getting up. Anyhow you force yourself to rise and wash and dress and have a cup of tea in case someone rings the doorbell, but nobody ever does except the milkman once a week when you are usually visiting the loo, this can be embarrassing.
Then you get your meagre breakfast and plan to be eating it by 9.00 am with a bit of news. This can be interesting, or boring, or upsetting as it has been lately. Then you try to read the paper and the excess literature which you discard, it is a rare treat to find a letter from an old friend, people do not write these days.
The paper does not cheer you up much by the time you have run through the list of wars, murders, rapists, joy rider kills, divorces etc.. Also politics seems to consist of each party slamming at one another, you begin to wonder how we ever get governed at all.
After eating and glancing at papers you wash up your few utensils and make your bed, wash a few articles of clothing, and by that time you want to sit down again, so read a bit more rubbish, then decide to dust the room, which does not really need it but it is something to do.
Then you prepare some scraps for the birds and throw it out and get furious again because the seagulls will swoop down and pinch it all, so you tap on the window and watch the starlings rush down and have a go, this goes on between them for some time with magpies creeping in the background and a black crow watching from the tree tops.
After that episode you try and think of something else to do, and if there is somebody you can write to, all is well and good, otherwise you have to make something up like this.
With luck it could be 12.00 noon by then so you feel it might not be too early to eat a little something and maybe have a cup of hot milk, because tea is barred. So you turn the radio on hoping for some nice soothing music, but it is usually Mozart or Haydn, not my favourite, or you put up with Pebble Mill, which varies, and another dose of news.
Then with a sigh you cover yourself with a rug and lie back in your chair and doze, but it must be a little one or you will not sleep at night.
When you wake up there is the joy of having a much needed cup of tea and a slice of cake if any, a little luxury which is not good for you. Then there is the gap between 3.00 and 5.00 to fill which is extremely difficult, too early to settle down with needlework, that’s for the evening. It is the right time for conversation but there is nobody to converse with. I miss my neighbour Joan once a week, and rare visits from Liz or Chris and Shirley, but having Paul one day recently was just right, he explained all about his job, training young students and assessing them, good luck to him.
Then of course there is my dinner to prepare and eat, very simple and is eaten in about ten minutes. With television on, more news, just the same, and not very interesting programs, takes about an hour. Then wash up unless there is something really good or funny to look at, which I enjoy, and a long sit down with my tapestry for about three hours, bit hard on the eyes, but relaxing and the best part of the day.