All dressed up and somewhere to go

The somewhere - it being that time of year - was my work Christmas party, which I had at various states of the tide looked forward to attending, railed against and even decided I'd skip despite paying up in advance for the event and accommodation. Anyway, we pitched up at the Saunton Sands Hotel, found our room had stunning views down the beach and out to sea, then spruced up and descended for drinks, dinner and dancing. So it was fun to have fun with colleagues in a setting that was out of the workplace and it was good to be able to point out to my long-suffering wife the various people I work with and tell her about at the end of my working day. My ever-loving and I did the jigging around thing in an increasingly sweaty mass of people only to be very slightly put off by noticing that both our GPs were also jigging around. Many staff from Bideford Health Centre were there, which I suppose would have been very handy if anyone keeled over with a heart attack at any time. As it turned out, after a certain amount of sweatiness we decided enough was enough and sloped off to bed.

What is it about alcohol that ensures you get a rubbish night's sleep? Whatever it is I woke up shortly before 5am. We'd left the curtains open so I looked out of the window at the sweep of Bideford Bay with Hartland Point lighthouse and the lights of the communities that line the bay and the estuary. Above us were the stars shining hard and bright - a cold night outside - and a waning moon almost resting on its back. Getting back into bed I mulled over the previous evening and realised that while I enjoyed the company of my colleagues - after all, I spend more of my waking hours with them than I do with anybody else - what had made the evening for me was being with my wife, and if there had been no one else there other than her, that would have been enough. So what, some might say, well, I suppose the answer to that is simply that it never hurts to be reminded of the people who are important to you. It is easy to take people for granted, but life is far too short to do that. With that thought sinking in, I lay in bed looking out at the stars wheeling across the sky. (Yes, I do know that the stars don't move - as such - and that their motion is, in fact, the impression given by the earth's rotation and travel on its orbit).