The "holiday season" approaches

I was surprised this morning when I went for my walk as to how many people there were milling around in the centre of our village. On enquiry, I discovered that this is because this is a "Christmas Shopping Weekend" and shops are supposed to be open and selling. Obviously nobody had told the local retailers this, since there were scarcely any open doors. No wonder the throngs were looking fed up - though the cafés that had thought to open for the day were absolutely packed!

Meanwhile, going back to yesterday's thoughts on the need to be proactive in choosing to recover from any illness or treatment, I had a moment of choice again this morning. After breakfast, I felt really sleepy - a late night two days ago had caught up with me. So, I thought I might go back to bed for a short rest, given it's the weekend. However, I then noticed that my dogs looked decidedly bedraggled, and I decided to give them a good brush before going to sleep (I did have at the back of my mind that this would probably wake me up, so it was a conscious decision at that point to brush them).

Of course, by the time I'd finished with them thirty minutes later, I had taken so much exercise that I didn't want to sleep any longer (so my cunning plan worked!) Two large golden retrievers take a lot of energetic brushing to get them to look anything other than scruffy at this time of year.

Followed by a brisk, 40 minute walk, I felt a lot better. But it would have been so much easier to have gone back to bed for the morning!