Before I drift away to sleep, I remember (thankfully) that I had signed up with
some of my colleagues for beach-volleyball sessions on weekends at 6AM, which explains the alarm set at 5AM, since I need time to get ready & haul myself
to Thiruvanmiyur beach, which is 15-kms from my home. Since it won't be good to
opt out, I pull myself out of bed. Takes me some 20-mins to get ready & I am
on my way to the beach, with a 1/2 litre bottle of water - to quench my thirst
after the game.
All along the 15km drive, I can see people walking/jogging and the beach has quite some early-risers active. A couple of my colleagues are already there and we tie
the net and play some practice shots. Another group of guys (whom we don't know) have come over (they have the ball, but no net) and join us & we now have the required 6 players on each side. The game is fun and gets us some much-needed exercise.
A snap taken of my colleagues after the game. You can see fishermen pulling in the net from the sea, in the background.
Around 8AM, I wind up & drive back home. Near my home, I stop to buy a newspaper and also pick up 500ml of milk in the now-empty water-bottle (I avoid buying satchet milk to cut down on plastic). As I sit down at home with a steaming-hot cup of tea, I realise that it is not even 9AM and I have the whole day in front of me, which is very unlike my usual weekends when I would wake up only around 10AM or so.
I have a list of tasks cut out for the weekend and I know that if I wake up at 5AM the next day too for Sunday's volleyball session, it should be a breeze to get all of it done. Incidentally, I did make it to the beach on Sunday.
Sunday evening as I sit back and go over what I did during the weekend, the sense
of accomplishment was huge :
- Most of the laundry done (point to note is I don't use a washing machine).
- Cooked all 3 meals at home both days of the weekend + the morning/evening tea.
- All dishes done - which given my cooking on both days was quite some...
- Swept & mopped the whole home - 2 rooms + hall + kitchen + balcony.
- Walked 3-kms (30 mins) in the evenings. //To ensure I don't outgrow size 32-waist.
- Finished the bank work + shopping for Aman + picking up groceries for the week.
- Gave my friend's bike a quick checkup - oil, filter, battery, idling etc
- Plus some time for reading, watching TV etc.
Since I am currently alternating my weekends between Chennai and Kerala, I would
be missing beach-volleyball the coming weekend. To make up for that, I have bought
a shuttle-badminton net - plan to play with my friends in our yard at Kerala during the weekends I am there.
I was able to continue the waking-up-early practise yesterday and today morning
also and since we don't play on weekdays, I instead went for a walk in the morning, after having a glass of freshly made sweet-lime juice. After the walk, had some egg & toast, washed down with a cup of tea and was out of home by 8AM to work.
While it does feel good till around 3PM or so, after that I kinda feel tired/sleepy, which I guess is because I am not getting to bed early. Sleeping at midnight or later and then waking up early in the morning does not seem like a good practice,
as it deprives me of the basic quota of sleep required by the body. Need to try to hit the bed latest by 11PM.
