Skip to main content

Should I Tell My Therapist I Have An Imaginary Cat?

Hi everyone.


It was T.S. Eliot who nominated April as the cruellest month but for me, it’s any month where the temperature regularly goes above 22 degrees. I realise that in many parts of the world that happens pretty much all year round but here in the UK, we’re usually only talking about June, July and August although I do remember us having a heatwave in October once.

Personally I hate being hot although I’m now of the age where that can happen even when the temperature outside is below freezing. And of course, the summer temperatures we have are nothing compared with the horrendous heights on the thermometer and their deadly effects that occur in other places.

But even in relatively “Cool Britannia”, we can still have trouble working, exercising, eating, concentrating and keeping our temper in the summer months. (Or is that just me?) Trying to sleep, in our air-conditionedless houses with little or no insulation that can feel almost as hot at night as they do in the day, is a particular problem. And don’t get me started on how light it is at 5am when the birds start singing and the sun makes its first appearance just as you’ve finally managed to nod off. 



What usually works for me is pretty simple, has no side effects and works not just for helping me to get to sleep but is also a great way of calming my overactive brain whenever things are getting a bit much.

I’m not sure if I should tell my therapist this but I have an imaginary cat. Her name is Tinkerbell and she lives with me on an imaginary boat called Fairport Clover. We sail across various seas and oceans during the day but at night, we put the imaginary anchor down in a nice, safe and secluded spot. Then I cook a tasty, imaginary meal on the imaginary stove in the imaginary galley and share some of it with Tinkerbell. She is an imaginary cat so her diet can be a bit varied.

But the best part of the night is when we both settle down on the imaginary bunk in the imaginary cabin and I play a game called Going Through The Alphabet. I think Tinkerbell would like to join in but she falls asleep much more quickly than I do.




The game involves choosing a topic such as girls’ names or items found in the kitchen and going through the alphabet naming one item in the chosen category for each letter. I started off with relatively simple things like pop song titles or footballers’ surnames but as time went on and I began to run out of categories, they’ve become much more complicated.

For instance, my recent categories have included one, two, three or four syllable boys’ names, alliterative pop songs, film titles that contain an adjective, noun or verb and words that rhyme with the previous word.

Trust me, if you’re not falling asleep even thinking about that, you soon will be!

So next time you are struggling to get some shut-eye, why not give the game a go? Tinkerbell and I can highly recommend it.

Category Suggestions

book titles

film characters

hobbies

sports stars

countries

things that are green

items found in a garage

things that fly

words with four syllables

sandwich fillings

things made with wood

board games

historical characters

song titles that contain a country

one word TV programmes









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Portfolio Career

I have been telling everyone recently that I now have a "portfolio career". Most people don't know what I mean by this (someone even said they'd have to "Google" it!) but it's really just a fancy way of saying that you have fingers in several different pies. I have been a "professional" writer since 1995 although I have always been a writer of some sort, ever since I was at school. During this time, I have stuck pretty religiously to writing and only occasionally had flights of fancy about getting a "proper" job. (And I still do. Only this time last week, I found myself offering to manage a jazz band!!) However, for various reasons, I've recently been seriously exploring other freelancing options that I can do alongside writing and have now decided to "rebrand" myself as a writer, a crafter and a musician. I also plan to carry on working on community newsletters and do something in the spiritual healing/growth area a...

Shortlisted in the Writer's Toolkit Flash Fiction Competition

Hi everyone. A good writing week this week, despite the distractions of the cricket and the tennis, possibly because my portfolio career has been suspended, pending further enquiries (don't tell my patrons!) and I've been at my desk every night. Long may it continue! I said in my last post that I was recently shortlisted (top ten) in the Writer's Toolkit flash fiction competition. The competition brief was to write a short story of 150 words or less on the theme of 'Secrets'. My story actually came out at exactly 150 words because at the last minute, after I'd sealed the envelope, I suddenly panicked and decided that the wording of the rules could mean that the story had to be exactly 150 words. Mine was 149 if I remember correctly and it was surprisingly difficult to add that extra word! Apparently the competition attracted 182 entries (which I must admit was quite a surprise) and entries came from several European countries as well as the UK. I was particu...

Setting Quotas

Does anyone else set quotas for how much work they send out every week, month etc or is that just me? I decided a while back that I was probably never going to send anything out if I didn't set a quota and for various reasons I decided that six items a month was right for me. Like lots of ideas, it is probably good in theory and so far I have managed to keep to my quota. Unfortunately, the theory seems to fall down when I find myself (usually on the last day of the month!) desperately scratching around trying to find somewhere to send something in an effort to meet my quota. A few weeks ago, while in this predicament, I came across Healthy  magazine in a well-known health food store. I noticed that they offered fifty pounds worth of vouchers to spend in store for the writer of the star letter. Desperate to fulfill my quota and hopeful of winning the top prize, I duly sent off a letter. The email was returned by the "postmaster" for some reason, so ...