That 'can't sleep, can't lie in' thing

It's half term and I have been up since six.

It's funny - I always look forward to half term as a sort of mid-term get-out-of-jail free card. We've done half a term of mornings comprising me being nice to the children at seven - 'wake up darling', 7.15 - 'are you still not up?' (louder and less gentle), 7.30 - 'why didn't you have a shower and do your hair last night?', reaching a crescendo (great word - had to look it up) at 8.10 when I lose the plot completely as I have one child in the mini ready to go with school bag, games kit, trumpet etc and the other still doing the Paris Hilton thing with her hair in her bedroom. Anyway, half term, I can relax, get up at eight, feed animals, start work at 8.30 as usual and stay in my jamas until I feel like having a shower - without having to fight for the bathroom. So why am I awake at six?!

Sometimes, of course, the old brain wakes me up. I am a firm believer in the 'If you build it, he will come' theory of creativity. If I am working on generating some creative ideas for clients, I have to make lists, brainstorm a bit with myself (hard, but not impossible) bounce a few ideas off the husband, dogs, children - and then walk away and do something else. The 'something else' might be walking dogs, doing laundry, blogging (oops, that's a giveaway!) . And then I come back to it - I have 'built' the structure - lists of ideas, etc and then (eventually) 'he' - the idea - will come. Of course, Field of Dreams is not my favourite movie and Kevin Costner should have stuck to being Alan Rickman's straight man in Robin Prince of Thieves but it is such a great line.

The other reason for being awake at such an unearthly hour nearly every day this week is, of course, the orchestra I sleep with. The percussion section is the worst, random (and sometimes so loud that he wakes himself up) but the woodwind were playing a rhythmic but persistent tune from about 5.30am this morning and there was nothing to be done but get out of the orchestra pit. We have tried various remedies and I know friends who have made their husbands ...wear watches that give off small electric shocks when they snore... have operations on their throats...wear those nostril-opening plasters and so on. We resorted to homeopathic drugs for a while but he became rather reluctant to take them so here we are ... or rather, he is upstairs asleep and here I am.

Anyway, it is now nearer 8.00am than 6.00am so I can start my day without fear of too-early-waking either of the twins, the French Exchange student and the 'Barnsley exchange' as we have now named the lovely trainee teacher who is also staying with us for a month or so. I don't think I necessarily want to go and stay in Barnsley in exchange, but hey, if the brass section gets going, it's always a possibility.