I seem to have been busy for the entire day, with no results whatsoever.
I should have gone to the gym, but when the moment actually arrived, I simply couldn’t face it. Laziness washed over me in an engulfing wave, and instead of dashing off to the rowing machine, I made a cup of tea and ate a couple of miniature chocolate Easter eggs. I ate some more after that, even though I had stopped wanting them.
I was not proud of this.
Tomorrow things are going to be different. Tomorrow I am going to become a Reformed Character. I am going to eat healthy things, go to the gym early, and be at work in plenty of time. I am not going to eat chocolate and yawn.
I have not been to the gym since I was ill. I have been telling myself that I am convalescing, which is another word for idle. I know perfectly well that I am not remotely ill any more, but somehow I have simply not managed to muster up the enthusiasm.
Tomorrow things will be different. I will get an early night tonight. In the morning I will be refreshed and energetic and life will fall into the palm of my hand. I will leap enthusiastically out of bed and organise my life properly.
I have just looked at the clock and realised that I have already missed the first target. I might have to settle for being refreshed and energetic by lunchtime.
Today did not start especially early. You will not be surprised to hear that when I did manage to get organised, my very first job was a visit to the post office.
The man behind the counter nodded sagely when he saw me.
“Gone back to school, has he?” he asked, as I handed over the parcel containing the forgotten tweed jacket.
Every new term starts like this, it is a sort of ritual.
As I walked back across the road there was an enormous clap of thunder. The skies seemed to go dark all at once, and heavy raindrops started to splash everywhere.
When I got back Mark was hastily covering up the wet cement he was laying in the garden, and we dashed indoors, and looked out at the downpour with some satisfaction. It has not rained properly for so long that it was actually a relief.
Mark has started designing a system for collecting rainwater. He has been given some enormous black tanks, and we are going to clutter the garden up with them. There will be some pipes and an overflow and a watering system. I have seen the plans.
This will be brilliant when we get global warming and the Lake District turns into a baking wasteland.
It was not a baking wasteland today, so I couldn’t do any of the interesting outdoor things I would have liked to do. Instead I went upstairs and tidied the loft.
The loft has been unoccupied since Number Two Daughter moved out. Incidentally, she sent a message this morning. She is driving an enormous dumper truck in an Australian gold mine. I am impressed with her career diversity. Never once did I imagine this outcome when I was struggling through her school years. It gives me encouragement for the future, clearly it is packed with surprises.
The loft was also packed with surprises, mostly of the dusty and tiresome variety. As you know, we have got Lucy’s summer ball approaching at the end of this term, and I had gone up there to retrieve Mark’s dinner jacket and to see how my Extremely Smart Occasion Dresses had survived. Even the most regular reader is unlikely to recall our last Black Tie event, since it was seven years ago, almost in our youth.
Things were not in a good state. Fortunately they were moth free, having been carefully stored in bags, but everything smelled of forgotten cupboards and looked limp and elderly.
I dug it all out and looked at it all hopefully, which did not help. I was pleased to note that the dinner jacket trousers had one of those elastic-and-button adjusters on, like Oliver’s, but Mark said gloomily that he thought he had probably gained weight, not lost it, and he might need some more elastic adding to the front.
We did not try any of it on, I think perhaps I ought to go to the gym a few times first.
It is lovely to be here now that the rain has stopped. Everything smells sharp and clean. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life and I am going to be a reformed character. I am going to try the dresses on and go to the gym and eat salad.
Tomorrow.
