Last Night

Last night was another of those very weird nights where I couldn’t get my brain to shut up so I could go to sleep. {I actually do have a prescription for Ativan expressly for this reason, but I didn’t remember this until I woke this morning! } I had the last meal of the day at around 6 which is when I usually eat. At 2 am, I realized I was hungry and got up and had a couple of pieces of toast and Marmite. Fred was still up but that isn’t unusual since he is a night owl and seldom comes to bed before the small hours. Then I went back to bed and tried to sleep again. Since my mind wouldn’t stop, I turned on the light again and read for an hour or so. it was 5 am when I finally drifted off and 9 am when I got up. Four hours sleep is better than no sleep but I am pretty sure I will have to fight taking a nap today.

I am reading my way through Naomi Narvik’s "Temeraire" {Ok. that spelling doesn’t look right but I just checked it and it is} series and enjoying them very much. They are basically an alternative history-with-dragons series set in England in the time of Nelson and Napoleon Bonaparte. Well, the series starts in England but by the time one gets to the fourth {out of five} books, our heroes, the aviator Laurence and his dragon Temaraire have been all over the world including Africa and China. What is interesting is how, as the books go on, the dragon is a character who changes as he learns. In this book, a captured French dragon has been deliberately infected with a disease which kills dragons and then allowed to escape back to France {the enemy} where, of course, he infected the French dragons. Temaraire is horrified by this and he and Laurence head out for France with the cure which Laurence has had to steal from his own side. This book ends when Laurence and his dragon are heading back to England to face the consequences of Temaraire’s conscience. The dragon is valuable and will go to the breeding grounds, but what will happen to Laurence? This series is highly recommended. I want to give myself a break before getting to the last book because I am enjoying the series so much I don’t want it to end. I usually have two or three books on the go and the one I am on-and-off reading now is World without End by Ken Follett.

Time to finish my coffee and organize my walk. Until later…

QUOTATIONS:

"There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way."

Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957)