David | Northcote
“Having a letter published in Listener. Listener is very difficult; often doesn’t publish my letters.
They’d had this big article about sleeping, and I wrote and said, what a lot of academic codswallop, which they took out, but they did, you know, summarise it, basically saying that, all this research into sleeping; people, like I’ve done, followed all their recommendations over the year, and still only sleep five hours a day. So, I think it’s a lot of rubbish.
When I was a kid, I was asthmatic, so I’d wake up in the middle of the night. This was before we had those puffer things, and I probably couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I’ve always had broken sleep, and now I’m just old. Old people probably only sleep about five hours a night, you know? So, I get up about four o’clock or later, and clear off any films or something I’ve recorded on television.
I’m a Christian, in the sense that I try to follow the teachings of Jesus. I don’t believe in a lot of the mythology in the Old Testament, but I do try to be a good person, as He indicated, and I had a childhood in England and came out here when I was 10. I grew up out at the Bays when it was the back of beyond and I’ve worked in tourism and teaching ever since. The last 10 years, I probably taught English more to Chinese, here at the library, and to immigrants and refugees.
Peace of mind and contentment – I think I have that most of the time. If you’re grateful for what you’ve got, you know, and I have. Life has been a mixture of laughter and tears, but overall, I’ve achieved far more than I ever expected at 18, and I’m content with my lot at the moment. I have sufficient to live on, and I don’t have any great ambitions. My health wouldn’t allow me to to do too much, anyway.”
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