The older I get, the more 12 months would seem to whizz by.
In my more youthful days I recall summertimes which lasted for ages, and the time separating one Christmas and the subsequent one felt infinite. Nowadays a decade can fly by in what seems like seconds. I remember the Hogmanay celebrations at the beginning of the century, but it feels like just yesterday. However I have to admit that I do look considerably older than I did at that time: my grey hair is proof of that.
I really like seeing the advance of the season. It unfailingly renders me pleased as I go to my closet to get new clothing for the different seasons. This winter has been so warm that the spring plants are starting to pop up early. I have barely donned my wintertime coat, which is a big shift from last winter during which it was snowing continually for ages.
If it is really bitter I endeavour to avoid leaving my home, because I do not handle the cold weather particularly well.
My hours in the office feel like they’re going exceptionally glacially. It feels as if I am there for an age, clock-watching. The other employees in our office are always speaking about irksome television programs they saw the day before, or the weekend sport, and I find myself fantasising about telling them to shut up.
I can’t abide the workplace chats, so I simply get on with my scanning and shredding, hoping that the hours will speed up. O that I could get a different job, or at least one in which there were less tedious co-workers.
These days I am sleeping a lot longer than I used to. In my twenties I could survive with three or four hours of sleeping a day, but these days I’m utterly dysfunctional if I have not had at least six. I often fall asleep on the bus when I’m coming back from work, although I generally wake up in advance of the stage where I get home. If I could, I would spend my lunch break sleeping on my workstation, but regrettably that wouldn’t be deemed appropriate behaviour by the boss.
I reckon that he might be delighted to fire me, to be honest, therefore I ought to preclude providing him the reason.

