"A Normal Day" by Caroline

My Dad's wife's daughter wrote the following piece - I think it's just great. Thanks to Caroline for letting me post it.

A Normal Day!

My phone alarm rings at 5.45am, pretty lights flash and it plays a happy tune. I swear at it and turn it off. About 5 minutes later I drag myself unwillingly from my warm bed into the cold, the heating is off. I get myself ready for work, make a cup of tea, and some boring sandwiches for lunch. It always amazes me how something that looks so unappetising at 6 in the morning, I can devour eagerly at lunchtime. I leave the house at 7am. The dark walk to the bus stop, still cold, sometimes wet too. Board the bus full of dodgy looking characters. Get off about 20 minutes later and start the walk to work, keeping my eyes open and my senses alert for the off the lead, unmuzzled Rottweiler who is taken for a walk by his irresponsible owner at about this time. It has come charging up to me growling and barking on about 3 occasions, leaving me a nervous, shaking wreck.

Another boring day at work, it’s like groundhog day, the same faces, saying the same things, all moaning how they don’t want to be there and how cold they are. I feel cold all day too, warehouses do not have much in the way of heating. The only time I see proper daylight in the winter is when I go outside to the smoking hut in my break. The smoking hut is a converted bike shed with some plastic chairs in it. Some people go to wine bars or nice places for their lunch. I sit in a sordid canteen that smells of other people’s disgusting microwaved food, and then I go outside to a corrugated iron hut and sit next to a dustbin.

4pm, the time I should be pleased about, the time I can leave that depressing cold place. But I’m really only swapping one sort of hell for another. Walk in to find husband sitting in front of loud telly, he knows I can’t stand loud telly. Sometimes he glances my way as I walk in and says hello, but sometimes he’s asleep or he just finds the telly far more interesting than anything I’ve got to say. I go into the kitchen and put cotton wool in my ears, make a cup of tea and go and sit in the garden for a much needed cigarette, or two, no matter how cold, dark or wet it is. If the chair is wet I take a towel to put on the chair. I stay out there savouring the peace until I get too cold. Then I go in and sit and read the paper, I just feel like sitting in a comfortable chair and chilling out for a while but it’s hard to relax while listening to the loud telly, which is accompanied by him whistling and tapping the remote control against his hand or flicking the battery compartment open and shut. Sometimes I’m still cold if there’s no heating on, as it only goes on if he’s cold, it doesn’t matter about me.

Make myself and my son something to eat, sometimes I cook for all of us but it’s not always that easy when we don’t all eat the same things (we are all fussy eaters) or we don’t want to eat at the same time. I hate cooking anyway and can’t be bothered too much after a day at work. If I do cook for him, he comes into the kitchen and eats it standing up, he says it’s better for the digestive system, although I think it’s just a bad habit he got into when he lived alone and didn’t have a table. He then puts his plate in the sink as soon as he’s finished, in about 60 seconds and goes back to the telly. I wash up. I listen to my ipod if the telly is too loud or he is whistling. We watch the soaps if they are on that night, I’m wishing the volume was lower and that he didn’t feel the need to tap and whistle through it. Sometimes it’s a relief when it finishes, although I do like the soaps, I have a reason to leave the settee in front of the telly.

For the remainder of the evening its tv channels of his choice, I do not want to watch sport, war films or Bart Simpson! I have a chat to anyone who happens to be on MSN. Then I have a shower and go to bed early. Lie awake till at least midnight, sometimes later as I’m unable to sleep through his snoring. Can he never be quiet? He even irritates me when he’s asleep! I crave silence! Sometimes the only way to get any sleep is to go in the spare room. Peace descends when he leaves for work about 4.45am until my phone alarm rings at 5.45, pretty lights flash and it plays a happy tune…….

2008 © Caroline Levett