So what now... it has kept me awake wondering... but then I thought I suppose that's an idea....
So lack of sleep, either intentional or not, is it fun or not?
In a previous blog I've mentioned about being lost in Transience last year... where I had to stay up, so that I could get home... but there have been other times, where the day has past twice for me... and here are a few.... maybe boring sorry...
Just before the turn of the new century, me and my best friend B journeyed over to Ibiza on an 18-30's holiday, we partied hard and sometimes till the early hours... (I waited till 6am for a foam party.. was worth it...). Once only being blind drunk and doing my walk.... my sense of direction not failing me....it has only once...
But when the second too last day rolled up and we had to leave the apartment at 10am.. but the flight was not till 6.30am the following morning... and this was to be a long, long day....
We hung around for ages with the suitcases, morning turning into afternoon, afternoon till evening and then eventually morning again... the coach arrived and ferried us into the already packed airport, queues to go and queues arriving, packed onto the just vacated coaches... the queue took ages to move.. enough time for me to get the courage up to ask the girl in front if she needed help, but now it was nearly the end of the queue.. and she said no.
The journey back was non discript, packed in like animals and one seat from the alley.... but I did have a dodgy stomach (don't eat boiled chicken abroad), so I was up every hour.. so sleep was not an easy thing to get.
Back in blighty, B offered for me to stay over, but through some disagreement, I got in my car and drove off, which wasn't the best idea.... as I discovered further down the motorway, I kept having to shake the cobwebs from my head.... after an age I arrived home and flaked out... feeling drained and not at all happy... but this was not always the case with staying Awake......
------ 2nd Time...
A few years ago.... I had the most euphoric experience of my life, one which still has the same effect on me now when I think about it....
I was far away from home and work, a new chapter just beginning when this life changing moment came, I didn't realised how good and bad my next year was going to be... but what started it off on a high was.... I got told I was missed by someone beautiful and special to me...
And then from that moment onwards (about 8pm, 24th of Aug) I was too excited to sleep, as if it would make me miss something... but for the next few hours (till 4am) things continued to be like the perfect start to something new....
I languished awake waiting for the next thrilling installment... hiding when the owner of the flat came through early in the morning... my eyes filled already with sleep.... but that wasn't the end of my first day... I still had to drive home and a long one that was to be... my companion finding sleep next to me, as she always did traveling, me I had the monotony of the open road ahead of me, a van full of stuff and a distant radio... but salvation was at hand...my brain was filled to breaking point with euphoria...
The rest of the day was a blur of unpacking, shifting and tidying... but once that was done, a quick trip to Tesco's...
By now it was just creeping up to the 24 hour mark, the feeling not receding, merely getting topped up by the contact.... I felt like I was floating whilst shopping.. barely sensing anything around me.... this continued that night also, but some sleep crossed my eyes... not much in 48 hours I had less than 5 hours decent sleep... but would I have changed this.. nope... not for anything....
------------ 3rd time.
My more recent experience was on holiday last year, ahead of me was a journey of 540miles as a passenger in a car. We set off in good time, the shifts all worked out of who was to be driving at the time, B.E was first so she could get used to the large vehicle, then her husband 'Leadfoot', (Nice guy, tad boring at times, but has a huge lead foot... he can cut journey times in half, but the element of possibly dying in a crash... up ten fold).
So for the first part the journey was just like any other, countless cars passing by the window, familiar sites up to my old haunt of Carlisle, then into the beautiful hills and mountains of Scotland. All this was fine, motorways helping us cut up the miles and B.E being pregnant we had to make regular stops.. then the night came in....
Soon we where in the motorway free highlands of Scotland, dark winding roads, cars becoming fewer and places to stop also, I just carried looking at the scenery and talking to T.
Anything was subject matter, over the low radio, our other two passengers asleep in the back... odd glimpses on wildlife in the headlights, calmly going about their business...
I did try to close my eyes at times, but maybe for the fact I was going on holiday for the first time in years... I was excited. Forests went by... mountains and as mentioned wildlife.... the road slowly snaking towards out ferry terminal.... which we pulled up in good time... just to see some of the locals falling out of the club in the town... once parked up, G realised he had read the times of the ferry wrong, so we nearly 6 hours early so then it was bunk down in the car... but not for me!...
I was still keeping the sandman at bay... my ipod, psp entertaining me... but as dawns fingers slowly crawled across the sky, I left the car and had a quick walk around the port, trying to take pictures in the twilight, with my legs stretched and my fellow travelers, we drove round the town and tried and find a garage or somewhere open. But after a quick tour of the place, which we'd only really seen close down the night before... nothing was open, so back to port and wait for the cafe to open it's doors... around 7.30am, which was just before my 24hr mark...
The cafe opened and it must have been quite a rush that early in the morning, people actually hanging around the doors on a Saturday.... so a breakfast was consumed... and much to the annoyance of my sleepy fellow passengers, I was still rather chipper... full of energy... and grinning like mad...
Nine am rolled in and we rolled onto the ferry.... hour an half later, the shores of Orkney welcomed us.... we quickly found our lodgings and the boat for the diving.... sorted out loading the equipment... still which happily lodged itself in my memory... but it around this time that my brain started to blur everything into a big stream of actions...
I remember shopping for supplies and a quick tour around the town, our other companions arriving... and from then on the drinking began, slow but steady in the local... trapping and killing the troublesome wasps and flies... but then it hit me like a tidal wave.... I began to flag at an alarming rate
After boasting to everyone about my lack of sleep, I had to go... so just as the 36 hour mark hit... I was in bed, light still outside and friends still drinking... but I was glad to find rest now... before the sleepless nights of my companions snoring....
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So till the next time I either have a choice about staying awake, one thing I have learnt is when it's through circumstance rather than choice.... it a lot better.... Bubbles proved that ....
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