Thursday 15 January 2026: Um, rabbit hole, anyone?

I had a lot of work planned for yesterday. I had a short story to outline. I had a workshop to revise. I had a book to edit. And I had a blog post to write and schedule. I did none of it.

We were up lateish, after a bit of a disturbed night. I’m still coughing, but at least it sounds more like a cough now and less like a barking donkey. Nevertheless, the coughing still wakes me up several times a night at the moment. And when I’m not waking myself up, the dogs are waking me up.

After the third time of puppy getting me up for one reason or another (out, out, food), I gave up. And the poet saw to him the fourth time. He’s such a heavy sleeper, he could sleep on a washing line. But I had to wake him with a very loud groan of frustration. I was tired, I still didn’t feel very well, and I’d already done it three times. So he stepped up, bless him.

By the time I got up ready to go to the hospital, I think he’d done a half-day’s work. It was another good visit, with the nurse saying I was starting to ‘glow’ a bit now. We confirmed the extra appointments that came in over the weekend, so that took a bit longer than it usually takes. And I was in for 50 seconds this time. I started at 9 seconds.

On the way home, two things happened. 

First of all we stopped off at the supermarket so the poet could nip in and get me some more cough medicine. He also bought cakes, some pink iced Belgian buns for me and some iced Bakewell tarts for both of us.

The other thing that happened was we received a phone call with some good news. Now, I’m not one to get excited until I know something is definitely going to happen, or already in progress. But we do now have things to do, people to call, stuff to arrange. 

‘There’s you off down a rabbit hole for the rest of the day,’ said the poet.

He knows me far too well. And while I did protest my innocence, he was actually right. And instead of doing all the things I should have been doing, I ended up shooting off down rabbit hole after rabbit hole after rabbit hole. By the time I realised I hadn’t done any work, the day was almost over. And I did at least start to do my workshop revision.

But the poet was already on his way home, and now I have a lot to catch up on today. Starting with today’s blog post that should have been done yesterday.

So, short and sweet this time.

This post appears on Words Worth Writing and Patreon.