The day began like all the others, with the cat pawing at his face and purring madly. The cat, Jedi, has an internal clock that is set to five minutes earlier than the alarm. He’s just lucky he’s cute.

Jedi is also a large cat and his weight on Hadyn’s chest eventually forced him to get up. Amy murmured as she rolled over and went back to sleep. Hadyn managed to stay quiet as he walked from the bedroom to the kitchen, a purring Jedi circling his feet. A sullen Hermes, the other cat, sat waiting in the hallway and, as was the cats’ tradition, they tussled while Hadyn mildly cursed them under his breath.

Sleep had been at a premium recently as the people living in the flat downstairs had been playing loud music every night of the week sometimes until well after midnight. Hadyn’s curses for “them downstairs” were anything but mild. Thumping bass from bad music is not the sort of thing one needs coming through the floorboards at 1am on a Wednesday morning.

Hadyn fed the cats and showered. Amy was still asleep and stayed that way through the entire morning ritual. When Hadyn was finally ready to leave for work, bedecked in iPod, cheese-cutter cap and bowling jacket, Amy was just awake enough to kiss him goodbye. Hadyn was feeling generous and tucked her in, even though this meant she’d sleep in and only arrive at work just before nine.

The walk to work was better than usual. Wellington harbor was flat and still and the rowers were out training. Hadyn read the poetry art again as he walked past, the line about “men working in offices no bigger than elevators” always caught his eye.

The iPod was also being kind with it's random song choice. This day might not be so bad, he thought. Then his phone vibrated in his pocket.

[that's were I'm ending the first one, sorry]