With apologies to those of you with real jobs that in some way involve, y’know, actual graft – nurses, retailers, premiership footballers – but for many of us with cushy office jobs, this Monday morning marks the return to our desks after over a fortnight’s holiday. And, boy, does it hurt.
Politicians, though, are a different breed it seems. Labour politicians especially appear hyperactive in their frantic eagerness to interfere in everyone’s lives I mean, save the world erm, sorry, help us ungrateful citizens. Far from dreading the alarm clock’s fascist sirens, they’re up with the larks, with a spring in their step. Here are just a few random examples…
Tony Blair: “What gets me up in the morning, and still gets me up in the morning, are the improvements in the basic issues that affect people’s lives.” (Sept. 2004)
David Miliband: “Social justice is what gets me up in the morning.” (March 2007)
Gordon Brown: (April 2008)
“I get up in the morning saying this is the best job in the world.”
“I wake up in the morning thinking what we can do to help homeowners.”
“I wake up in the morning thinking what we can do to help… people who have got small businesses.”
“I wake up in the morning thinking what we can do to help… people looking for jobs.”
“I wake up in the morning thinking what we can do to help… people wanting opportunities so they can have better jobs for the future.”
Jacqui Smith: “What matters to me when I get up in the morning is thinking what am I going to do today to help the British people feel safer on the streets.” (Sept. 2008)
Their devotion to getting up in the morning for all our sakes does them proud. And prompts me, this Monday morning, to ask the question which headlines this post – what gets you up in the mornings? And why? Please tell me.
Please 
23 Comments
Cos I’m self-employed and it’s fun! Although I can always go back to bed if it stops being fun.
Did that help?
The kids get me up in the morning. Even when I don’t want them to
Were it not for my alarm there are certainly some mornings that I woudl not get up at all!
The Today programme. They are bound to be interviewing SOMEONE ill-informed and annoying, or misrepresenting someone who isn’t, and getting me cross is the only way to wake me up.
Not that I haven’t been having to do that all the time you have been on holiday ANYWAY, you lazy arse.
Ditto what Alix said!
My bladder.
Because I really am an optimist, despite everything. It is precisely my conviction that the world can be a better place that fuels my rage, knowing that inert people & inert systems stand in the way of the future we could be enjoying.
Life’s too short to lie about in bed (by oneself anyway). So get up and get on with it.
As Stuart said above, if you’ve got kids, that’s what gets you up. I don’t even bother setting my alarm any more as I can be certain my daughter will have brought me her Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy to play well before I have to leave for work.
Somehow it is always a nice experience.
Signed: Soppy Dad
I think the knowledge that if I don’t get up in the next 30 seconds I will have my pillow force fed to me is a great personal motivator, frankly.
The crows in the trees outside my window.
“Progress doesn’t come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” – Robert Heinlein (author)
What gets me up in the morning?
Viagra.
Hearing McMental on the radio gets up me in the morning – and every other time of day.
The Today programme for me, too.
It’s a bit random whether it’ll be John Humphries or someone they’re interviewing who’ll annoy me, but one way or another someone will be so annoying that going for a shower is preferable to staying in bed and listening to them.
My fastest bed exit was one morning when Anne Widdecombe was pontificating about abortion. I actually rose from slumber with a primal roar of “OH SHUT THE F**K UP YOU EVIL OLD TROUT!!” that morning.
There’s no snooze button on a cat that wants its breakfast
LUNCH
I want to go to University. Simple.
The “ten minutes to breakfast” bell at school used to work like an electrode to the testicles and every since then it’s been automatic.
Unfortunately, the irritating qualities of Radio 4 rather rely on being awake enough to pay attention to what’s being said. I’m pretty difficult to wake, because often the slightly hushed speaking voices have a quite soporific effect on me. So I gave up on Today, and went with 6 Music instead, which is a bit more of an aural kick up the arse. If I’m not up by the time George Lamb comes on, then I definitely will be five minutes later.
Hmm, I’m clearly a crap political type: for me, it’s not John Humphries, but George Lamb…
Gordon Brown gets me up in the morning. If he didn’t take so much of my income in tax, I wouldn’t have to spend so much of my life working for others in order to live.
I get up and think of Gordon and then ask “Dear God….when will he just GO”