Like other authors I am a watcher and a listener – it’s where we find inspiration for our blogs and stories.   I am not naturally talkative, and tend to be content for the most part just to observe.  I have always been this way, and in fact as a young teenager learned many things from sitting quietly occupied and letting adults talk all around me ( I notice my eldest granddaughter does this now, and it makes me smile).

So… there I was at the hairdressers today trying to read my Kindle (yes Christine Campbell, I have finally got around to reading ‘For What it’s Worth’!), but 3 other women sitting waiting for their turn were talking about how tired they were and how they even wake up tired (doctors call it the TATT syndrome – ‘Tired All The Time’).  Each woman seemed to want to outdo the other one in tiredness as though it was a competition.

I had a little think and compared their lack of energy to the human dynamos which are my two little grandsons.  They run everywhere and are bundles of energy.  They only seem to eat bread, pasta and sauce, chocolate and ice cream, but they are on the go all day.  I looked at these middle aged women and wondered when and why the body’s energy levels start to change from running and leaping about into the demoralising TATT syndrome?

My sons used to run everywhere – in fact I often had to run with the eldest one (who was hyperactive) around a race track to wear him out.  Now he’s 35 he’s yawning a lot and looks forward to any chance to sleep.  The other one is just the same at 32.  Does life and work make them tired?  Is it their diets maybe – too much sugar and saturated fat?  My mother Dot often said that she was born tired, but I don’t remember feeling TATT at 35 and I don’t remember my dad ever saying that he felt tired either.  I’m tired in the evenings, but get through the days okay unless I have a germ.

Do you have the TATT syndrome?  The 3 women were yawning and it made me yawn as well, although I’d slept for a good 6 hours.  I came out of that hairdressing salon feeling thoroughly knackered!