#oneaday Day 528: Autumn plague

Andie and I were ill all over the weekend. Nothing serious — and thankfully not COVID, which we were both concerned it might have been — but the kind of cold that is just enough to be moderately debilitating and make you want to stay in bed for a good 75% of the day.

I think we're both over the worst, but we've both been left exceedingly exhausted, as neither of us have slept very well for the past two or three nights. Hopefully tonight will allow me to get a decent rest, as tomorrow I have to do a long drive for the monthly trip into the office — though it should (should!) be moderately less stressful as I'm driving down in the daytime in order to attend in the afternoon, and then I have the following day off work completely.

With all that in mind, a proportion of today has been spent napping, and I suspect an early night will follow. I genuinely couldn't keep my eyes open by the end of the morning's work, and so my lunch break was spent not eating and watching some TV, but just napping. It was nice.

A middle-of-the-day nap is not something I really started doing until a few years ago, and I'm aware that it can mess up your sleep schedule and all that business. But sometimes it's just nice to allow yourself that moment of peace and quiet, to shut down for a bit and attempt to replenish your depleted energy reserves. It doesn't always work, of course — sometimes waking up after a nice nap leaves you just wanting to nap a bit more — but at others, it can be just what you need to refresh yourself a bit. A power nap, or whatever.

For some reason, I find it much easier to fall asleep for a nap in the daytime than I do at night-time. Part of this is the mind's tendency to ruminate on things last thing at night, but I'm not exactly immune to that in the daytime, either. And yet still I find it much easier to nod off in the middle of the day than at night-time.

Perhaps part of this is down to the fact that from university onwards, I was a bit of a night owl. I have particularly fond memories of being up late one evening pootling about on the Internet, receiving a message from a friend of mine who said that they were going to the beach, and heading off for a thoroughly pleasant evening of night-time beach foolishness with said friend and some other mutual acquaintances.

There was also the period around 2010 or so where I was Going Through A Difficult Time, shall we say, and as part of that process I completely ruined my body clock to such a degree that I was going to bed at 5AM and not waking up until 12 hours later. Not my proudest moment, but also I think the support I was receiving at that time is what helped me get through that particularly difficult period, as incompatible as it may have temporarily made me with a "normal" existence.

Maybe I just like sleeping. I do like sleeping. Regardless, I'm going to sleep relatively early this evening in the hope that I feel a bit more human tomorrow, because right now I feel like a sentient pool of sludge.

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#oneaday Day 621: Fun, Fun, Fun in the Sun, Sun, Sun

It's October, and it's very sunny. Temperatures have been up around the 30 degrees mark (Celsius, obviously) and the sun has been beating down like an army made up entirely of marching bands.

As I remember it, this has happened for the last few years. As difficult as it may be to think back on my wedding day now, the one thing I do remember is that it was a lovely day, and in October too.

The sun is something of a double-edged sword. Beautiful sunshiney days such as today are lovely to look at and ideal to go and visit outdoor attractions such as the zoo or the gardens of an old stately home (the latter of which we did today). It's nice to be out in the sun, and lying on some green grass in the shade as the bright sunshine warms the air is super-nice.

Problem is, last couple of times I've had a lovely day like that out in the sun I've promptly spent the afternoon and evening suffering with the mother of all headaches thanks to (presumably) mild sunstroke, or possibly brain AIDS. But more likely the sunstroke thing.

Memo to self, then: wear a hat. Supplementary memo to self: buy a hat. Because as a kid you can just about get away with wearing some awful hand me down trucker hat that your parents dredged up from somewhere. But as an adult, wearing an inappropriate hat that doesn't suit you just makes you look a bit special needs.

I've asked for book and music recommendations in the past; I wonder, will the Internet be able to recommend me a hat that doesn't make me look like a dick, a chav or both?

#oneaday, Day 289: Autumn Days When The Grass Is Green

I can't remember the last time I was as acutely aware of the arrival of autumn as I have been this year. Much of the weather of our green and pleasant land falls into the "grey and overcast" category, which is why the sun shining is usually a trigger for wide-ranging sensationalist journalism. "HEAT WAVE!!" "HOSEPIPE BAN!!" "TROPICAL TEMPERATURES!!" And of course, the inevitable knowing winks towards global warming.

Autumn, on the other hand, arrives with little to no fanfare. It gets a bit colder. Some people (usually at the elderly end of the spectrum) take this as a cue to say out loud things like "ooh, feels like Autumn's here". But there's never sensationalist journalism. "TREEPOCALYPSE!!" "OMG LEAVES!!" "MILD HURRICANES SWEEP NATION!!" I don't think so.

But during a long drive tonight, it was very apparent that autumn is indeed in full swing. The thing which means I can say this with absolute authority? The amount of leaves blowing around. They were everywhere, sweeping through the air like their own weird little weather system. Even the motorways, concrete slabs of greyness that are about as far from Mother Nature as you can get, had leaves swirling above them and fluttering across the road like a pixie dropping a large pile of correspondence.

This became even more pronounced once I hit the country lanes close to home. Leaves lined the roads, breaking up the monotonous greyness of the Tarmac surface with colourful patterns, swept up by cars as they sped by and tumbling back to the ground like a "wake" for the passing vehicles.

Perhaps it's just that I spent the best part of ten years living in an urban environment where one season looks much like another. For the moment, I live in the countryside. So maybe I genuinely am seeing it more.

Whatever the cause, autumn is here. So wrap up warm, go outside and go jump in some piles of crisp, crunchy brown leaves.