I don’t know if this quirky little custom is found elsewhere in the world, but in New Zealand, if you can’t sleep, it is suggested that you count sheep. Close your eyes, imagine a big green paddock with sheep. Lots of them. Which I suppose is not unreasonable in a country of just over 4 million people and just over 40 million sheep.

However, I have to say, it has never worked for me. Even when we had a sheep farm.

And yet last night, I once again found myself attempting to count sheep. Heavens only knows why, actually now that I come to think about it, it probably has something to do with developing a merino clothing range… Anyway, I very quickly got bored with sheep but it occurred that there may be something to this whole counting thing. So I switched to people. Specifically, people I’m grateful to.

This time last year, I had just embarked on a 2 month trip in the United States. In part, a market research trip for Onemeall, over the 8 weeks I was fortunate enough to have conversations with many truly amazing people. And I was able to make that journey, and have those experiences, because of amazing people here.

As I worked my way backwards through time, I held the faces of hundreds of people in my mind’s eye and far more effective than sheep have ever been, they sent me off to sleep. The conscious, soft focus on people’s faces, one after another after another, definitely worked. But unlike the sheer monotony of counting white woolley creatures (having said that, I’ve met some sheep with fabulous personalities and I think they’re highly underated) this process was delightful. Remembering people’s faces, rocked me gently, gracefully, gratefully off to sleep.