The thing about transitioning from work to not-s0-much-work is that it starts with a frenzy of all those things that have been awaiting. Four weeks in and it's only today that I didn't set an alarm to get up and do something or be somewhere.
I checked my watch at 2.30ish thinking it was about 5pm. But in work-time, it was just after lunch with the whole afternoon stretching ahead. I'm looking forward to the weird bending of time if not the total collapse of my daily structure.
Of course, I still did things. Tea with visitors, long-overdue photo backups, bunny bonding, builder liaison, admin, Coop trip, cooked a bloody ace dinner and so on.
Him Outdoors challenged me to do nothing for a week. But what would that involve exactly? No TV, internet or books? No garden, allotment or bunnies? No writing, films or chats? Forced 'relaxation' just sounds boring and annoying. I have a nagging feeling that I should still try it, however. A bit of unstructured quiet thinking time every day might be nice. Can that still involve rabbits?
In other big realisations, I'm giving up the booze for a month – maybe longer. I've been dithering about this for a week as I love the taste of wine but the truth is that I mostly drink to relax after a hard day and if I don't have a hard day maybe all that is left is just an unhealthy habit or social drinking pressures. With health and fitness being my top priority in November, this can only help.
So yeah, I'm calling it – NO-vember.