Foolish

I'm not one of those bloggers that likes to set up an April Fool's Day ruse for their readers (though I did wonder about writing a post saying that L had just had twins, despite us only ever seeing one baby on the scans). Others do, extremely funnily at times, but it's just not me, I'm afraid.

I do, however, have a couple of April Fool stories to tell you about this year's April 1st. One is a joke I feared may happen and hasn't, the other I wasn't expecting at all.

For more than eight months, now, we have known that April 1st 2005 was going to have more than the usual significance for us. You see, it is today that our baby is officially due. Of course, the chances of it being on time are not that great, but you never know and I really didn't want it to happen, especially before midday. Anyway, the joke I feared was that L would ring me up at work and tell me she was in labour so I'd rush off only to get another call a few minutes later telling me it was all just a laugh. That hasn't happened (yet, anyway).

Incidentally, I also wondered whether the baby might get in on the act and make L go into labour in the morning, only to stop at a minute after noon. ;-)

The joke I wasn't expecting was one I played on myself. Yes, you heard me right, I played it on myself. How can you not expect that, I hear you say? Well, let me explain.

My eyelids opened this morning to find it was a little lighter than it should have been. I looked at my alarm clock and it said 7.04. There was a brief moment of incomprehension before the panic set in and I leapt out of bed. You see, on a normal day, I leave the house to walk to the station at 7.10. My alarm should have gone off almost 45 minutes earlier. What on earth had happened? Did I sleep through it? Well, no, because the alarm turns the radio on, which then plays for two hours, and it was silent. Those thoughts raced through my head by the time I'd got round the bed and was heading for the door. It was at that moment that a memory floated up from the depths of my mind.

It was the early hours of this morning and, in a period of semi-consciousness, I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that the alarm was on. So, being of sound mind, I reached out and turned the damn thing off! Why I did that, I'll never know.

It turned out all right in the end. The act of leaping out of bed woke L up and after I'd showered and dressed she threw on some clothes and gave me a lift to the station so I could get my normal train. It was a 20 minute mad rush rather than the usual 50 minute leisurely stroll, though. Thank god it's Saturday tomorrow.