The ol' ticker . . .

. . . my bodyclock, that is.

I am an early-riser. Or at least, I was before I started shift work. I function best when I can get up early in the morning, get a lot of things done and then relax and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

When I started shift work some five years ago, my body clock had to be put on snooze permanently. I could be at work at any time of the day, and would have to sleep for eight hours straight when it was light outside and there were children playing in the park. (Grrrr, damn kids playing loudly! I wave my imaginary walking stick in their direction.)

Thank goodness I also seemed to be able to manage sleep as a shift worker. Unfortunately, this also meant that any alarm clock going off would catch me very unprepared. I would often jump half a foot off the bed while reaching for the alarm and kicking one of the cats into launch, all simultaneously. I think it is one of those things that you can only manage to do while being semi-conscious. (Like sleep-walking face-first straight into a wall and waking up crying in the hallway with no idea where you were, how you got there or why your nose hurts like hell. But that is another story.)

Anyway, this was just a brief celebratory post to herald the fact that my body-clock seems to have made a valiant return, and over the past week I have woken up at the same time, around one minute before my alarm actually goes off (at 5.30am). God bless you, body-clock. I plan on enjoying you for the next four years until I have to send you packing again.