An early night

 

An early night

We go to bed too late. Every day we promise ourselves that we will have an early night go to bed at a reasonable hour, that is, before 10.00 pm. Every night, I crawl into bed, if I can find a space between the animals, ‘far too late’ I say, complainingly.

We even have an alarm on our watches, each of us, that tells us we should be preparing for bed. Every night we ignore it. There’s always another episode of whichever riveting programme we’re watching, though I do wonder if we should really be watching yet more in-depth war documentaries just before retiring for the night.

Sometimes, we decide we should watch something less horrific to sweeten the mind after an evening of such viewing. So, we watch ‘Frasier’, or some other comedy and again, one episode leads to another.

When I went upstairs a few nights ago, earlier than usual, Herschel was already there – he likes to go to bed early. Gilbert came up with me while Roxy and Jellicoe stayed downstairs with Barry. He likes to make sure the fire will stay alight through the night so that it’s warm downstairs in the morning. This involves a bit of riddling, (not the joking sort) and another shovelful of coal.

Actually, we use anthracite and thereby hangs a tale. The UK has enough anthracite for its needs but to prove our green credentials we are no longer mining it. Instead, we are importing it from Australia. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Anyway, Barry started his evening ritual of feeding the fire but as he opened the door the inner ceramic pane which looks like glass but isn’t, slipped down. One of the screws had worked loose. He was familiar with the composition of the stove, having recently replaced various bits – baffle, rope door seal - so he donned his heavy gloves and set to work to screw the window back in place. The fire was hot, but glowing rather than blazing. Nonetheless, it was uncomfortable work.

I was blissfully unaware of his trials and tribulations until he appeared much later and told me all about it. I would have left it until the morning, probably, but Barry does not procrastinate. It’s a good thing one of us doesn’t. It didn't help my 'early night', though!