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 go to a location for filming. It's the first time in quite a while that I've filmed every day for a long period of time, and it took its toll. Yet walking round the marina to where the car was waiting for me at 5.30 in the morning on some of the sunny days we've had lately was a joy. I can understand the current trends in newspaper articles for the 5.30 day. Some people, friends of mine who write, start their day early and get their daily words done before breakfast. I've tried it on occasion and it hasn't always been the most creative opportunity, but it certainly gets you thinking. On the days I've cleared my desk by 9.30, I feel I've accomplished something. And that often leads to me doing more. Things I didn't know I was going to do.Things that I've been procrastinating about. All good for the spirit. Of course, with those early starts on set, sometimes when the first scene is a short shoot or when they change the shooting order, you can take back to your trailer the provided bacon butty and settle down in front of that morning's episode of Homes Under the Hammer and find yourself in a sort of heaven. I'm not sure I'll ever be a really early bird. There's always a little pain when the alarm goes off before 6 am. But I do enjoy all the benefits that those early mornings bring so that worm had better look out.

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