Saturday Mornings

I like my Saturday mornings. The Kids sit upstairs in Aaron's bedroom and watch TV or play Game Cube. Daniel is still asleep - if I listen I can hear him snoring. I have a large fat purring cat sat under my chair at the desk and the other is curled up on the sofa.

No TV noise. No music (other than the purring) and I am free to write what ever I want to write. It's the closest thing to happiness for me.

I said recently that I am not a happy person. I tend to be a glass half empty and I worry far to much for my own health. But I do have happy moments. This is one of them.

If it wasn't raining I would have gone for a walk by the sea. That's one of my favourite places. We don't have a beach as such, we're across the Bristol Channel from Weston and what sand we do get is more like mud. But I was born and bred in Aldeburgh (suffolk) and waking up to seagulls and the sound of the waves is another thing that makes me happy.

I love trees. The nice thing about Aldeburgh is that the top end of Town is in the countryside. It's a bit like Rhoose. Here we're on a cliff edge and where I live is surrounded by fields filled with cows, horses and sheep. So I get the same feelings about Rhoose.

My real home town though is Plymouth. Where else in the world do you have the sea at your feet and Dartmoor at your back? To the west is the wilds of Cornwall - great for exploring, and to the East is Devon - Fudge, Cream Teas, Exeter... sigh. I love the whole of the south west and it was in Plymouth that I discovered who I really was, so I will always want to go back there.

It was in Plymouth that I discovered the joy of Saturday mornings. Before I had kids, Daniel and I would wander around town, go down to the Barbican to eat fish and chips under the Prawn then walk up to the Hoe and sit by the Lighthouse looking out at Drakes Island and watching the ferries go out.

Peace. Happiness. Its still there waiting for me to find it. I just have to look in the right place...