Daily Feline Prompt: Perchance to Meow

Sleep is two-thirds of our lives: write a post about it. Do you love naps? Have trouble falling asleep? Wish you could remember your dreams? Remember something especially vivid? Snuggle under a blanket, or throw the windows wide open? Meditate on sleep.

“This could become a long post Tabby.”

“I agree Fluffy. Although talking about sleep is not as good as actually doing it.”

“I slept yesterday and had a dream.”

“What did you dream Fluffy?”

“That is the problem, I cannot remember.”

“No important Fluffy. The point of the whole exercise is that we sleep. Dreams are just a decoration on the side.”

“It asks if we have naps. I though our complete sleep pattern was based on naps.”

“It is. Any self-respecting feline keeps their ears open in case there might be a territorial dispute.”

“That’s why I mostly sleep next to Mr. Human.”

“What does Mr. Human have to do with it Fluffy.”

“He protects me from the TV monster.”

“The TV monster?”

“Yes, it makes noises in the background.”

“That’s a human thing Fluffy, They need their TV in the evening. I think it is a sort of machine to send the humans to sleep. At least Mr. and Mrs. Human often fall asleep when it is working.”

“You know what Tabby, this whole discussion is making me tired.”

“Me too, time for a nap I would say. I feel tired after sleeping 23 hours I have to spend the 24th hour looking for somewhere to sleep.”

Daily Feline Prompt: High Feline Noon

At noon today, take a pause in what you’re doing or thinking about. Make a note of it, and write a post about it later.

“Look Tabby, that was me at noon.”

“Of course it was, so I don’t really get the hang of this. It is definitely a human thing, this noon. Noons are there for sleeping, so are mornings and afternoons, and most of the night. Taking a break is nothing special.”

“Now and again we do take breaks Tabby.”

“For what?”

“Have you never had that feeling that there is something missing in your feline life. Something you must do. Finish a job that we have begun.”

“Not really Fluffy, I don’t do jobs, I exist and therefore I am.”

“Keep all that philosophy stuff to yourself Tabby, When you speak on a higher level, it confuses my whiskers.”

“Fluffy there is a purpose in a feline life, many purposes and it is good to think about them. The famous Chinese philosopher, Felucious said “To spend time sleeping is a gift, but to spend time searching for a place to sleep is a reward.”

“So what is the meaning of those wise words Tabby.?”

“It is obvious. Every moment we sleep is a gift to our intelligence, but our time to sleep is limited, so how do we fill the remaining hours of the day when we have slept.”

“We eat tuna fish?”

“Not exactly Fluffy, that is a once a week occasion.”

“We mark our territory.”

“That is just a natural process. No Fluffy, we have slept and with the time that remains, in between eating and hunting, we search for a place to sleep.”

“Of course Tabby, how stupid of me. By the way Mr. Human removed the feline play centre.”

“I know, I never really stooped to using it, it is a human idea that we felines must have a play center. We do not play, we study and learn and …..”

“And sleep, yes, but Tabby, I sometimes sleep on the cat play center.”

“That is your problem.”

“Tabby I have found a new place to sleep, much better.”

“Where?”

“On that nice comfortable chair that Mr. Human uses when he watches that box with the moving pictures.”

“Good idea Fluffy. Do not forget everything we know is feline philosphy: When we are hungry,  we eat. When we are tired, we sleep and when we go to the vet's, we pee on our humans and the vet.”

WordPress Daily Prompt: Frame of Mind

If you could paint your current mood onto a canvas, what would that painting look like? What would it depict?

I am sure this tableau says it all. The daily prompt has arrived whilst I was enjoying my daily lafter lunch sleep, enabling the food to digest and sailing away to another dimension on a darker  level.

We will begin at the beginning, the top of this masterpiece. The cobwebs are present, clouding a clear thought process, and there are some forks of lightening. This is easy to explain. The pains of a golden oldie tend to collect during the sleep phases and are quite concentrated when awakening. First of all there is an inspection tour to be made Am I still breathing? Can I move and is my brain functioning? It is often the case that a double inspection has to be made as the thoughts are still disturbed by various aches and pains caused by the fact that age is creeping up on you: slowly and stealthily. These problems reach their peak in the waking phase, but no worry. It is a regular occurrence and the body adjusts.

Somewhere in the distance a cloud approaches casting a shadow and it appears that everything is under a layer of fog. This is normal, I do not worry, I just find a better position in my nest to relieve any remainders of cramp that are still present. Of course this complete process is beneath a muddling blanket, its forks spreading over the complete picture and preventing a clear state of mind. The cloud has a silver lining so it is not irrevocable.

In the meanwhile the sounds of life are filtering into your ears. You can hear a feline meow and feel a rhythmic up and down of paws, a kneading motion, on the bedclothes. During your golden oldie sleep you are not alone. Tabby has arrived and noticed that his slave is relaxing. There are times when Tabby mistakes his human slave for his mother. I can excuse this as felines are generally short sighted. I do not have whiskers or large pointed ears, but it might be that I snore purr in my sleep which brings memories of a mother cat tending to her brood. Eventually Tabby falls into a feline state of sleep, which is neither awake or slumber: somewhere in the middle, always ready in case there is a change in the human pattern of sleep and if a danger approaches. The postman only rings twice as we all know.

Now a precarious moment is approaching. My thoughts roam to a question, shall I or shall I not? I mean arise. This has to be considered. It might be a shock to my system. Primarily I sit on the edge of the bed and if I survive I arise, and stand in a vertical position. In the meanwhile Tabby the feline has decided to leave in case I might tread on her tail in my state of uncertainty.

As my painting shows, the trees are now clearer, which symbolises objects in the room. I grasp for my iPhone next to the bed and am confronted with a blurred screen. This is possible if I forget to wear my glasses. I grope for my spectacles and turn again to my iPhone. I switch the phone to receiving. During my golden oldie sleep it is programmed for flight mode. Figuratively speaking this is not so wrong. I often take a flight in my sleep, and it has been known that I have almost fallen out of the bed. Flight mode on the iPhone means that if someone somewhere wants to speak with you, they cannot, they are blocked and I do not hear them: a perfect setting for a telephone. In the meanwhile Mr. Swiss has switched the main line telephone into oblivion and all our friends and neighbours have been warned that Mr. and Mrs. Angloswiss are not available for two hours after lunch.

And now you can see the golden sun slowly rising at the bottom of my creation; my state of consciousness is returning, I am almost there. I stand on wobbly legs and move towards the bedroom door. Everything is in its normal place. I take my lap top and place it either on the kitchen table or outside on the patio table according to how the weather is. If the staff at WordPress have not had a rip-roaring party the night before, a daily prompt will be waiting.Of course, there are afternoons when the laptop takes second place and they let me out for a visit in town.

Such is the midday painting of Angloswiss . It might be, of course, that I wake in a bad mood, something has disturbed my golden oldie sleep and then the painting resembles more “The Picture of Dorian Grey” that changes with the moods of the subject, consult Oscar Wilde, he wrote the book. 

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WordPress Daily Prompt: Your Time to Shine

Early Bird or Night Owl?

I would say neither nor. Sometimes there are circumstances in life, when you are more or less forced to be one or the other and you even think it belongs to your way of life especially in the younger years, but once you discover your life is you own to choose and do what you like, a little more common sense prevails perhaps.

A teenager in the swinging sixties in London – who cares when you go to bed and how much sleep you get? A certain influence was administrated according to when the last underground train left for your home destination. In my case my Saturday evenings were spent in Leicester Square dance hall, about 30 minutes train ride from Bethnal Green where I lived at the time. Of course there was compensation on Sunday morning, sleeping in until elevenish, although this was also combined with getting out of mum’s way when she was preparing the Sunday lunch. A delicate matter it seems and better not to appear in the kitchen, being “in the way”.

During the week you arose in the morning to go to work, so you had no way of choosing to stay in bed. You arose with the early bird and if you went to bed with the night owl, then you had problems to leave the security of your bed the next morning.

Years go by, you become independent, no mum and dad, just you, yours and yourself. Great, at last the chance to become a haunter of the night. No-one to tell you when to go to bed, although unfortunately you were still forced to leave your bed early in the morning, when the owls were probably sleeping and counting the worms and mice they had caught during the night.

I did lead quite an active life, taking advantage of parties and events, although I suffered during the day trying to keep my eyes open and not falling asleep in the office. Did anyone notice? I do not think so as they probably had the same problem after a night on the tiles.

Married life changed things a little. For your children you do everything, so it was waking every four hours when they were babies. You were a living milk supply and your babies did not care. They were hungry so they screamed and made noises until they were fed.

Eventually the kids grew up and I returned to work. I just slept at every opportunity. Regularly arising in the morning at sixish and having a fully packed day, was no ideal for becoming a night owl. Generally I fell asleep in front of the television early in the evening. Unfortunately office hours in Switzerland were a little different to England. The morning began at 7.00 o’clock in the office and work was finished when it finished according to what you were doing, but we had generally a 42 hour week, so work that out.

Today I am retired. You do what you want when you want to. I never did become a night owl. I detest falling asleep in an armchair during the evening. I go to bed when I am tired and I arise about eight in the morning. Even if I am awake earlier I do not care. I savour every minute I can lay in my comfortable bed. Of course as it happens in age, you do go backwards in your life. My children always had a midday sleep and I find this also very rewarding as you get older. After dinner an hour or two in a horizontal position in bed is just what I need for a relaxing session. Combined with an hour Tai Chi practice during the day it is ideal. I want to make the most of the years I have left.

The birds never wake me in the morning, usually the local road train that does its first daily journey around six in the morning. I sometimes even hear an owl in a nearby forest during the night, such a reassuring noise, knowing it is his problem and not mine.

So if you want to see me shining and full of life, call in around 3-4 in the afternoon. It is the best time and you might even get a piece of homemade cake and a coffee.