It's been a particularly busy week. Staff shortages, colleagues on leave, two full days interviewing meaning a backlog of work to get done and a late night on Wednesday thanks to Heart of Midlothian FC's ultimately futile attempt to defeat lower division Airdrie United after two hours have left me quite tired. Well, at least I'll get a long lie on Saturday I thought....
Someone's car alarm very thoughtfully screamed to half of Edinburgh at 6.00am this morning. Wonderful. Unable to get back to sleep immediately, I got up and made some breakfast. I headed back to bed and began to drift into sleep when my next door neighbour thought he would make an early start on that fence he's been meaning to put up since Adam was a lad. Early start meaning 7.30am for the hammering and sawing of wood....
Stuffing cotton wool in my ears and covering my head with a pillow I almost made it to the land of nod. Until inevitably the telephone rang at 9.00am with some insufferably cheerful woman from south of the border offering me cheap car insurance. I didn't check if she was religious at all so she may not have taken kindly to being told to go forth and multiply...
I finally gave up on the Saturday morning lie-in at around 9.20 when the postman arrived with a recorded delivery item that required my signature - and he gave a very reasonable impression of Jack Regan of The Sweeney breaking someone's door down. The fact that said postie rarely ventures round these parts before 12 noon on a Saturday - or any other day for that matter - merely enhanced my suspicion that there was some kind of perverse conspiracy to keep me from enjoying Saturday morning in bed.
So I still feel absolutely shattered. I may consider heading to Hamilton this afternoon to watch Hearts faintly amusing attempts to score a goal. That may well be enough to have me - and others - snoring from the stand....
