The Early Bird
The proverbial wisdom is it's the early bird that catches the worm. I'm not sure I've ever really been an early bird. The first 10 or 15 years of my working career were based around theatre, where the day's climax was the evening and relaxation time didn't begin until 10.30 at night after a particularly long Shakespeare. It was the pub or dinner, and bed rarely came before 1 am in the morning. Rehearsals often dragged one out of bed the following day. But wherever possible, I would enjoy a lazy morning between the sheets. Revelry was quite often the cause of those lazy mornings, so when I gave up drinking 25 years ago, one of the benefits I discovered almost immediately was the fact that I had so much extra time as I woke by 8 most mornings. I could complete my to-do list for the day by 9.30 and have the day stretch in front of me with opportunities and possibilities. For the last three weeks, I have been dragged out of bed at 5 a.m. to get in the car at 5:30 to