My new habit is to wake up at 5.30am. It is still dark and far too early to get up and start the day – in my opinion anyway!  So I usually get a cup of tea and return to bed to read. I switch on R4 and hear interesting programmes like Farming Today and think of all the other people who are doing the same. It feels like I have joined a secret society of early wakers, non sleepers, worriers.
Over the past three months my early morning worries have closely tracked what was happening in life. First the journey to Cornwall, then the meeting of the three dogs and how they would get on, then the renovation work here in Dolphin Cottage, the packing, various worries over changing relationships in the wake of my moving to another country……and now my thoughts have turned to the trip back to Catalunya.  It’s quite interesting – I don’t worry much at all during the day but in these early hours a switch flicks on and I just have to accept the twittering of a restless mind. Early morning worries don’t tend towards problem solving – they just like to swim around and around in circles. You think  you have settled some tricky question and then a few moments later find you are thinking about it all over again.
I thought yesterdays gym and swimming might help – but clearly not.
So the best thing is to have the cup of tea, read Alexander McCall Smith’s Bertie books, listen to interesting programmes on sheep farming and border collies and eventually drift back to sleep till Blue wakes me with her insistent barking to go out.
And the other best thing is to determine to be positive.
We will travel from Cornwall to Folkstone and through the tunnel to France. Then there will be a beautiful drive down through France, avoiding the Central Massif and the possibilities of snow. We will either sleep in the camper van or in roadside motels which take dogs. A few days later we will cross the border into Catalunya on the Mediterranean coast and then it is all downhill to Granollers.
That’s all!