Andrew Kay treads the boards

Phew, I’m so tired. Tired to the point of nodding off on the bus, drifting into deep, deep sleep the minute my head hits the pillow and taking a power nap at every available opportunity. I have to admit that the pain killers prescribed to help soothe my ailing knee have not helped in this sense, they do make me drowsy and I have certainly avoided, as advised, operating any heavy machinery whilst taking them.

“What they have done is given my dream life a kick start”

What they have done is given my dream life a kick start. The other day I woke at 5am completely exhausted. I got out of bed and made a pot of tea and went through to what estate agents would call our main reception and I call the living room.
Seated on the prematurely derelict sofa, less than a year old and falling apart, the night’s dreams came back to me.
I had driven down to Cornwall overnight to take my part in a production of Swan Lake. Heaven only knows why as I have never had any connection with the ballet except as part of the audience. Anyway, there I was in the corps de ballet dancing my little socks off.

After several curtain calls I returned to the dressing room in a marquee (did I mention that this was an open-air production?) to change. The producers came in and asked me if I could help them out. “We’re a man down for the chorus of Madama Butterfly in half an hour, can you step in?” Well it seemed rude to say no, so I whipped off my ballet shoes and popped on my American naval officer’s costume and did my vocal exercises before heading back to the stage as the world’s chubbiest ever Pinkerton.
No wonder I was exhausted and that was only one night’s exploits, the rest of the week was much the same. The pills are all gone now and my sleep pattern is much better. The dreams maybe be continuing but for the moment I cannot remember them, as a consequence I wake up refreshed. Thank heavens for that!