This entry is prompt #22 of The Book of Me, Written by You project

This weeks's prompt is – Daily Routine(s)

Do you have a daily routine?

Did your parents? Grandparents?

Why did they (or you ) have this routine?

Where did this routine take place?

Structure – Is this important to you? or your family?

Routines … I was going to say I don't have a routine but I suppose I do really, in that during the week especially I tend to do the same things most days. The routine tends to be set the alarm for 7.15am, get up at half seven, go downstairs and make a cuppa, make my son's lunch, feed the cats. Steve and I tend to watch telly – normally Flog It! – while we drink our tea and I'll have some cereal, toast or Belvita biscuits. Around 8 Steve and Dan leave for work/school and shortly after I shower, dress and start work. I work from home so I don't have a very long commute! Sometimes I stop for lunch; sometimes I get lost in whatever I'm doing and work right through – though I'll normally have a couple of cups of tea during the day. Dan arrives home at 3.30 and always comes into the office for a quick chat before disappearing into his pit. I work through till Steve arrives home and shouts “Hello!” up the stairs, normally shortly after 6pm. The evenings involves watching Come Dine With Me, one or other of us (we take it in turns weekly) cooking dinner, a bit more TV and bed at about 10, where we both normally read for half an hour or so. Wednesday is pub night and we go to our local for a couple of hours. Sometimes we go on a Friday too. And that's pretty much our weekday routine! Of course it does vary; several times a month I go to early morning breakfast networking groups, sometimes I have meetings with clients, occasionally we'll go to a gig in the week, but it's pretty much the same.

Weekend tend to be different – often we wake early but stay in bed reading for a couple of hours. Some Saturdays we'll go to an auction, or football, or the cinema or a gig. Saturday night tends to be a trip to the pub and kebabs for dinner. Some Sundays we'll take our cameras out for a photo trek, or will slouch in front of the tv all day. Sunday I do a couple of loads of washing too, and one or other of us does the shopping on the Sainsburys website. Ok … Reading this back, I think I am a creature of habit!

As a child of course we had a routine involving breakfast and school and homework and dinner and bath and bed, but my dad worked for the BBC and often did funny hours. For example he would sometimes be working on Eastenders, which meant a taxi at 3am and home and bed early, or he'd be doing a live evening show so didn't get home till after midnight. He also often worked at weekends; if he was home on a Sunday Mum would always cook a roast dinner but if he was working we'd sometimes go to McDonalds for a treat! So while there were routines, there was also a lot of randomness going on.

My maternal grandparents definitely had a routine. They ran a newsagent's so their life was fitted around the opening hours of the shop. Grandad would get up early every morning and go into the shop to get the bags ready for the paper boys; he'd then work in the shop for the rest of the day, unless he had to go to the warehouse to stock up. Grandma was also an early riser but she would spend a couple of hours every day doing her chores – she always tidied the house before the cleaner arrived – and get to the shop at about 9am. They'd both work all day before closing up at 6pm and returning home. Grandma would cook dinner, Grandad did the washing up and then they'd settle down together to watch their soaps. On Sundays the shop wasn't open so Grandma got the day off – so she'd knit, clean, read and cook a roast dinner. Grandad still went in early as the papers needed sorting, but would then go to the golf course for a round before lunch. And on Fridays they met up with neighbours over the road – they'd take it in turns to host two other couples.

I don't know a great deal about my paternal grandparents' routine, except that Grandad was a workaholic, Nanna stayed home and he always came home for his lunch!