Come 12.00 midnight, I began to feel more comfortable than I've felt for several weeks and, yesterday's sneezes and watery eye sensations seemed to have vanished. Quite strangely, once I began to feel comfortable I also began to feel wide-awake and, unfortunately, this state of alertness was my companion throughout the night. Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have felt so comfortably alert during the preceding day, or indeed any day, when full advantage could be taken of this rare experience? For at least the first couple of hours I found myself basking in this new sensation, with only a niggling concern that this nocturnal liveliness of mind would no doubt carry with it a penalty of shatteredness later in the new day. At 4.25am, I succumbed to the temptation of switching on the bedside radio and tuning in to Radio 3. I really enjoyed the rich miscellany of classical music, although on this occasion I had been hoping that it would lull me off to the land of Nod but, instead , I listened in a state of entranced alertness. I only managed to snatch some real, albeit intermittent, shuteye between 8.00 and 10.00am.
A brief walk up the road shortly before noon, to register with a conveniently local GP practice, post off a completed census form, and collect a wholemeal loaf from the bakery, was about all the exercise I could manage. Much of the afternoon has been spent reclining in the living room, Radio 4 presenting an interesting audio wallpaper whose weave I find myself drifting in and out of.
