Insomnia Part 1

Saturday October 7, 2006

Firstly, it’s the piano that keeps me awake at night. Not the sound of distant piano playing, but me worrying about piano playing. My daughter is learning the piano and, helping her with her practice, I am finding it hard. My wife says “it isn’t hard. It’s a course for seven year olds”, but she keeps her distance.

I’ve got to the point where I can read a very basic piece of music but I fumble when I try to play it. Keeping my eye on the page, on my hands and on my daughter as she loses faith in me and wanders off is quite a feat. I’ll never be the next Richard Clayderman. Or Liberace. But I think my daughter could be the next Mrs Mills. If she practices.

Secondly, keeping up keeps me awake at night. Not me deliberately staying up, but me worrying about keeping up. Keeping abreast of the latest novels, news and blogs is another ongoing pursuit where I always lag behind. Partly my Humax is to blame. Until last night, we were close to filling up our 100 hours of recorded television. In a frenzy I deleted:

The Cracker two hour special, and then for good measure the South Bank Show on Robbie Coltrane
Jack Dee’s new sitcom (I did watch the first five minutes and it was appalling)
The entire series of Life Begins
The entire series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Brazil

Feeling refreshed, I gathered a pile of newspapers (unread Saturday and Sunday supplements, duplicate TV guides for this week, unread computer magazines) and turfed them into the recycling box.

I could have gone further:

Deleting my subscriptions to blogs I never read
Whittling down my bookmarks and del.icio.us links to a more sensible level
Deleting emails I have kept that go back to 2000
Putting all the half read books into a box ready for charity

But I stopped myself, hoping that losing just some clutter might help me to sleep a bit better.

That’s just two things that keep me awake at night. But remember, this is only insomnia part 1.

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