Bleeurrgh!

Boy, my mind is just not working today: I've been sitting at my desk since before 8 this morning and still haven't cracked the 8,000 word barrier.
It's like - I don't know - stringing sand today (I can't even think of a decent simile!). I find I'm struggling to keep all the words under control, forgetting stuff I wrote, forgetting references, keep finding myself slack-jawed and staring vacantly with my mind skittering off to some random unrelated track.
I'm blaming the fact I woke up at 4am this morning, heart pounding (we had a splendid family meal out yesterday with a fair - though hardly excessive - amount of red wine) and feeling deeply anxious, worrying about my thesis and where it's going and generally being plagued by those bodily aches and pains thar make one imagine all sorts of terminal scenarios. I didn't get back to sleep, but that's not unusual.
I think I'm a bit stressed, though why I'm feeling it now when I'm just about getting on top of my word-count I don't know.
Could be because I got an email about the mandatory progress review form and, looking at the box titled 'doctoral development'realised I've done chuff-all in the way of the stupid little courses they just lurve to see on such things. I hardly going to travel all the way to campus for two hours on Powerpoint presentations: my 11 year-old told me all I needed to know on that score.
Could be because I have now realised (thanks Prof. Brian Cox) that I am just a bag of atoms sailing on the way to the heat-death of our universe.
Could be because I have been reading Seneca's Moral Epistles, which tell me I have to accept such things with equanimity. Great.
I'm going to take a break now and get some lunch - my blood sugar does feel quite low - and possibly walk the dog.
Hopefully, I feel a bit more enthused and positive and a bit less moronic and jaded when I return.