Ask me why I am tired – go on, I dare you!  Well let me tell you why I am tired.  This morning I was awoken at precisely 4.45am and it was not by my alarm clock, not that I would ever in a million years set my alarm clock off for ‘stupid-o’clock’ unless my life depended on it.

Nope, it was the sound of a galah on the fence near my bedroom window and for those of you that do not live in Australia or know what a galah is, it is a rose breasted cockatoo that is native to Australia and has a high pitched call that sounds like no other bird.

Here is a photograph of a galah for your benefit:

Now with my fertile and somewhat childish imagination, I imagine what animals would say if they could talk – it is a bad habit that I have so if the thought of talking animals fills you with dread then it is probably best to leave this section of the blog now as I cannot take any responsibility for possible mental scarring or psychiatric visits.

The conversation from the galah went something like this.

‘Samantha, wake up, wake up now, it’s happening!’  the galah yelled from outside the window.  I was dreaming about nice things and from the ‘outer window’ of my dream, it were as though someone was knocking on the window to disturb me – bastards.

‘Samantha, you will miss it, it’s happening!’ the rather shrill and annoying voice said, getting even louder.

Rolling over and putting a pillow on my head, my first thought was ‘shut your mouth feather-pie’ and then I realised that it wasn’t going to shut up any time soon.

‘Wake up!’ the galah yelled and then started to get itself into a high pitched frenzy of galah-type noises.

‘What is happening?’ I said drowsily.

‘The morning, it’s started, it’s already happening, get up or you will miss it’ the galah said matter-of-factly.

Jesus Christ on a bike, was that all? I sat up and grabbed my phone to check the time, it was 4.45am and I didn’t have to be up for another 2.5 hours!  So as you can imagine, I was not impressed.

‘I shall shout until you get up’ the galah yelled and that is exactly what it did – shout for another hour or so.  Now don’t get me wrong, if you are an animal loving ‘Dr Doolitle’ such as myself, the sight of a rose breasted cockatoo is enough to warm the cockles of your heart, however at 4.45am in the morning, it makes you want to use words such as ‘bastard’ or even worse.

I guess I should be grateful really, you can have normal alarm clocks and I have a cockatoo and various other members of the wildlife community, although our local possum sounds like the screeching of tyres when he/she tries to defend its property (our house).

Anyway, that was my morning and that is why I am so tired and I am hoping that tomorrow morning will be better and the birds can hold their AGM somewhere else.

Have a lovely day