Well, I'm definitely more sensitive to the change in seasons than I used to be. I love autumn and always have. But then, I love spring, too. I love the transitional seasons, but then I've always been more partial to the journey than the destination, if you see what I mean.:)

Autumn, however, means that I have to prepare to defend myself against SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder, for the benefit of any readers recently arrived from Neptune, or who fell off the turnip truck last night). I get better prepared every year as Chris has laid in large supplies of energy-efficient daylight-simulation lightbulbs. Still, I count the days until 22 December and after that, I watch as every sunset happens a little bit later.

In any case, what I've been doing wrong of late is not getting up early enough.

I used to be a night person and at heart, I still am. But in the autumn/winter, I have to get up before 7 a.m. or I'm no good for the rest of the day. Now, I can do that on 6-8 hours sleep, and in a pinch, I can still do that on 4-5 hours. But I'm a very heavy sleeper and I have to be awakened or I will simply sleep indefinitely. I can set an alarm but if someone else shuts it off too quickly, I won't hear it. Luckily, my cell phone makes a dandy alarm clock. It even has a snooze feature which is just complicated enough so that I have to wake up to use it. So I snooze once and then get up on the second alarm. It's perfect.

So I'm up and about to leave the house. Long bus ride into central London plugged into some music and I'm ready for the day.

I just hope the day is ready for me.:)


I hope the sheer excitement of this post doesn't send any of you screaming into the streets.