It's What Time On A Sunday Morning

What do you do on a Sunday morning? For me, today, it has begun with a flock of various birds shouting at me at 6:30am, followed by catching up on some work, or at least attempting to.

Let’s start with that first part of the sentence ‘a flock of various birds shouting at me’! You see my husband and I are part time bird rehabbers. At this present moment we have a Rook, called Edgar. He came to use 3 years ago but is unrealisable due to his injuries. Eddy is now a very happy house bird, though he is getting pretty old and has gone a little senile. Edgars past time is telling us exactly what he thinks we are doing wrong and demanding cheese. Then there is our Running Duck called Lettuce. Due to hatching complications Lettuce is bonded to myself and cannot be separated from me. He’s just turned 1 and is a very lively teenage duck. Lettuce’s new favourite pastime is running off with a bright yellow lunch back that we have called Buttercup because he thinks she is his girlfriend. Then last but not least is little Russell the Crow. Russell is just a fledgling and has been with us a week. We started out hand feeding him every hour but now Russell is, clumsily, flying about and feeding himself. As I don’t have large aviary facilities, he will soon go to a friend who has annual fledgling flocks. There he will learn how to be a wild bird and look after himself before they are all released together in the autumn.

So there I am, sat with one eye half open over my morning cup o’ tea, wishing it was a cup of coffee, but the Dr has me on a coffee ban. Edgar is vocal because his ‘bedroom’ cage has been temporarily taken over by Russell, Lettuce is telling me his water bowl is only ¾’s full and Russell is chirping in just to join the conversations whilst simultaneously peeling the bark off his branch. Meanwhile hubby is still in bed completely oblivious…

We have now made it to 7am, I’ve been forcibly woken up and now I’m bored. I could swear that was the curse of being self-employed. You find working long hours easy enough, but you don’t know how to take time for yourself. I’m still achy from yesterdays work (ground maintenance at the local archery club, but that’s another story) so don’t want to leave the sofa now, I have got comfortable after all. So, I look about and find that I left my laptop within reach last night, result, I can get some work done.

You know how outlook likes to bombard you with emails the second you fire up the laptop/computer, well that’s probably the best way to change your mind about working at 7am on a Sunday morning. After a quick scan I remind myself that is a Sunday morning. I may be working but the office is closed so customers will just have to respect that, and if they can’t wait until decent working hours before getting a reply that they will either not read or simply complain about, then that’s not my issue this morning.

But of course, that reminds me that I need to update the auto reply, shoot, how do I do this again. It gets updated annually and each year I forget which maze-like path to take. After about 10 minutes I get that done, set a reminder on my phone for next year and wonder what to do next.

Oh yes, the accounts need updating, over to excel we go. After a couple of pages and a fight with excel renaming the pages incorrectly or turning the auto save back on, I get bored of this. Who else hate’s Microsoft’s autosave feature? It always turns back on just at the point where you are either duplicating or making a mistake, so you have to re-save everything all over again.

I glance at the time in the corner of the screen, almost 7:30am. Am I mad, its SUNDAY morning! I know, perhaps an article will get the brain cogs going. So here I am, sat stretched out on the sofa at what is now 7:45am on what should be a day of rest, recounting to you how awful the last and so far, only hour of my day has been. Though Edgar has finally given up shouting at me, Russell is still peeling bark off his branch and Lettuce seems to have found something in a corner to eat. Well, actually, I think he’s pulling the fibres out of my new rug. Running Ducks are so funny, they are cheeky and mischievous and like to get into absolutely everything!

If you are still reading this far (I have little faith in my own writing so expect you to have left long ago) I image you think I’m a bit barmy. Or maybe you are a fellow entrepreneur sat at the computer or on your phone doing something like myself.

Hubby is starting to stir upstairs now. That gives me three options; 1) I can carry on working, there is always plenty to get done, 2) I can go and take him a strong coffee which he always drinks without looking at the clock or 3) I can give up completely, get some breakfast and maybe break out the sock I am currently crocheting?!? Hmm choices. We could always go with option four, a brisk stroll around the street. It’s a nice quiet place so I could probably get about with doing so in my pyjamas if I put on over coat on….

Let’s get the kettle on first and mull over the options, after all Lettuce is not pulling things out of my knitting basket and Edgar is shouting again, Russell has given up and gone to sleep. I hope you have all had a quieter and more relaxing Sunday morning, as I hope you have a nice relaxing day.

Alice