The Age of Random

 (Including a very silly video about how to make your bed)

Last night, as I lay under my duvet waiting for my sleep-aid supplement to take effect, I came across an article in The Guardian about a TikTok trend aimed at teaching people how to structure their days. It appears that some people don’t really know what to do when they first wake up, or maybe they need some cutely presented guidance about how they might set up a daily routine. Maybe there are people out there right now gazing helplessly at their screens, eagerly awaiting instructions from some gorgeous young Influencer who is currently experiencing a glitch on her scheduled publication of how to fold a tea-towel. They’re all feeling loooooosssssstttt (spoken softly, with a long hiss on the S and an added echo, like in that old TV series that was good for a while but never really went anywhere) when it comes to doing…well, anything, apparently!

Which strikes me as kind of cute, really. I think my sister, V, should get in on this trend ASAP because she’s the most organized person I have ever met in my life, and her tea-towel folding skills are off the charts. Actually, all her skills are off the charts. And she makes lists concerning other lists. The woman is phenomenal. Also, she always looks phenomenal. She has four kids, too!

I have no problem at all with people seeking a Mother Hen figure to understand how to organize their day. Clearly, this Tik Tok thing must really be a “thing” because even my mushy old brain remembered it overnight. It’s struck a chord that’s now stuck in my head, pinging a high-pitched note over and over (LAAAAAAA??!!!), and here I am writing about it right after filming myself giving the world a daft Ted Talk about changing our bedsheets. I mean, I’m mega camera shy! So, what on earth came over me?

I’m guessing the article spoke to me because I’m also rather random when it comes to daily chores. In fact, I’m quite random in everything I do, really. I’m not an organized person who rolls out of bed upon awakening and flits gracefully towards the bathroom, swathed in a pretty silk robe. Are you? Let me know in the comments.

Personally, I need to lie there for a bit in my old white cotton pjs, asking myself whether I slept well, and if I did, was it because I took this sleep aid supplement or that sleep aid supplement, and depending on which one I took, how does my brain feel.

Usually, at this point, the curious part my brain doesn’t quite know how it feels about anything just yet, because it’s always running roughly half an hour behind schedule first thing in the morning. When I eventually sit up, reach over to grab the blackout curtain and drag it to one side to see whether it’s another sunny day – which it often is at the moment! We’re in Spain! -  I then move on to checking the operational state of my knees, hips and bumps a daisy, which I’m pleased to report are all doing relatively well these days because my body likes being Spanish. Then I’ll place my feet on the floor and inevitably feel a strange numbness in the sole of my left foot that always disappears after about 8 steps, so I don’t bother about it too much. I’m just mentioning it in case you might have noticed something similar going in with your feet, and if there is, we have something to discuss in the comments.

I’m feeling no need to describe the five minutes after getting out of bed, because I’m guessing all of us have a similar routine, right? Again, feel free to enlighten me in the comments, but I’d appreciate everyone keeping all topics relatively genteel.

Anyway, I’ll then get dressed, often retrieving something I wore the day before that I simply took off as I went to bed and dropped onto my “discarded clothes chair”, which is located in the corner beside my wardrobe. Unless they need washing, my clothes tend to pile up on this chair for a couple of days, and then I’ll have a crisis and put everything away. What do I wear most days? I tend to go for a look that’s relaxed, cute and comfortable. Today I’m wearing jeans with daisies embroidered on them from the knee down. I bought them in Anthropology years ago, and found them on my chair this morning. I’ve paired them with an an old white linen shirt from Zara which I actually found in my wardrobe and not on my chair. If it’s a tad chilly I’ll just throw a big soft crocheted fringed shawl over my shoulders because I do enjoy rocking a little Stevie Nicks boho-glam vibe, you know what I mean?

Sometimes, if I feel like I’m looking a bit too rough, or my rosacea has been having a disco party overnight, I’ll put on a little makeup before I go down for breakfast, just so I don’t scare away the bunnies, the birdies, my husband or any house guests. But before I can sit down to breakfast I have about twenty minutes worth of supplements to take in order to keep me looking and feeling my best as an untweaked 62-year-old recovering from a neck ligament sprain, two messed up gluteus medius’, funky knees, a wonky right ankle, traces of Lyme disease, an auto-immune disease, as well as a number of other minor boring things stemming from having been active all my life and now bravely venturing into my 6th decade.

Breakfast tends to consist of gluten-free muesli with berries and a massive cup of tea with a good splash of oat milk, whereupon I then move on to far more important things, such as coffee. After breakfast I’ll be heading back upstairs to make the bed, unless my husband beats me to it, which he often does (come to think of it, he’d make the ultimate Organize Your Day TikToker), because chances are I’ll get distracted and gaze out of the window for an hour or so, admiring the leaves falling off the poplar trees at the bottom of the garden, and smiling fondly at the heron strolling across the field beyond (it’s actually a golf course, but I’m not posh, not really, I promise). I’ll turn on my computer and check my website’s analytics for random visits, as well as my KDP account for sales of my romantic comedy, Just Like a Movie (LOL!), and then probably scroll the Internet for a while, reading about all the terribly upsetting things taking place all over the planet and wondering why a small minority of bad people are allowed to make a large majority of good people’s lives a living hell.

I’ll get depressed for a while and go for a walk, before returning to my desk and wondering how the heck I’m going to move the action forwards in the novel I’m currently working on, because it has so many themes that need layering into the story that it feels a bit like I’m trying to structure a big bowl of cooked spaghetti.

I’ll play with my cooked spaghetti for four or five hours, occasionally glancing out of the window and wondering whether I’m allowed to go and play outside for a while, because this is hard and maybe it’s not really worth doing because so many people write books and everyone is cleverer than me and they’re also now all publishing fabulous prose willy-nilly on Substack. And maybe I should too, but I’ll probably just look silly, so maybe I should just start making videos about random stuff like making my bed, or do makeup tutorials, but I’m mega shy so I doubt that’s about to become my new creative venture. Today’s video popped out of me randomly, because I’m a random person. I’m a shy free spirit.

And anyway, I love playing with my cooked spaghetti novel.

Which is what I’m going to do now. So, I’ll leave you to enjoy my video about making my bed.

Love,

Francesca

PS: I’m beginning to suspect one of our current house guests spiked my tea this morning because I also made my first ever makeup tutorial right after I made the video about making my bed. Would you like to see that one, too?

PPS: as you can see from the photo at the top of the page, I also went in the pool today. FOR TEN MINUTES!!!! It was cold! But cryotherapy is brilliant according to that fabulous older lady taking part in Strictly Come Dancing this year, and I put my towelling banana poncho on as soon as I come out. A hot shower, a cup of tea and I’m ready to…?

Actually, I’m not quite sure. Maybe there’s somebody on a social media platform somewhere who might give me some sort of clue?