Every morning when I go to work my alarm goes off at 05.15, this is a bid to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic. I usually get to work around 07.00 and that is a clear 1 1/2 hours before I am supposed to start. This has benefits, primarily it means I can have my breakfast and read my kindle in relative peace before the rest of the team turn up. Sometimes, more often than not I will do some work, although usually I will do some personal development such as learning Dutch or reading. It is a peaceful start to the day, which can be shattered by the odd crisis and someone being in early. Occasionally, if I am really tired, I will have a half hour nap, which is ok whilst it is dark in Winter but in Summer it is a bit of a non-starter as my office has massive windows.
Anyway, when the Marimba alarm sounds, it is time to lean over, hug and kiss the wife and then slip out of bed. As I rise, my body begins to stabilise as gyro control is initiated. Every now and again I have a wobble, depending upon whether I had a decent nights sleep or not. Now I must add that the alarm is as loud as a fire alarm and my hearing being low I make sure it stays loud. An must love this. Sometimes, to my annoyance, I wake up before the alarm goes off, in some cases this is just minutes before, a wasted opportunity to sleep!
Being a former watchkeeper, I value both being silent and keeping the lights out. I am quite considerate in this respect, I go to the sock and underwear drawer and remove a set, whilst my night vision is still good. After that I fold back the rug and close the bedroom door to prevent the flood of light waking An up. At this point I do the usual evolutions; toilet, weigh myself, shave, brush the teeth and shower. My night vision is now shot through and I am quite awake by now.
I pre-iron my shirts on a Sunday and thus it is quick and easy to get dressed and grab my bag, which is normally pre-packed. Today I changed my routine, forgot my trainers and missed out on PT, shame...
Recently, due to the total ban on shoes being upstairs, my routine had to change. Usually I would come back upstairs before departing to give An a hug and a kiss. Now I do this before heading downstairs. A couple of weeks ago I had finished up and switched the lights off in readiness to open the bedroom door, my night vision having gone, I then proceeded to enter the bedroom and fumble my way down An's side of the bed. She was watching me, as her night vision was still well established. She continued to watch as I overshot my target and gently and delicately kissed the headboard. She was wondering what the hell I was doing and I was lucky not to hit my head on the wall. Needless to say I re-orientated and managed to locate the target some 40 cms further back from my initial estimate!
The next most important evolution is to feed the cat, who has been sitting patiently on the other side of the kitchen door, waiting for me to come downstairs. He clearly hears me getting ready and is well established in his routine. Sometimes he is outside and he waits for me to unlock the door, heaven forbid he should use the cat flap! As I put the food in his bowl he makes sure that my uniform trousers have a good few cat hairs to mark the fact that I belong to him. The last thing I do is grab my yogurt, keys, wallet and pass and then head out of the door.
As I leave it is like doing pre-flight checks in the car, depending upon the weather the heating and demisting kicks in and I establish the music for the journey and initiate the navigation. Usually this is a rolling task as I am departing the street.
I promise the next one will start with the zip! You know what it is like when you get going...
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