Why do weekends go so quickly when weekdays go so slowly?
It's more than a bit of a cliché to make such an observation, but as I sit here typing this I can't honestly say that the past two days really felt like two days. It felt more like about 6 hours.
Which isn't to say I did anything particularly different or interesting, it's just that time seemed to basically evaporate.
Not that it was all rosy. For some reason all Saturday I had a bit of a "pulled muscle" feeling in my stomach area - like if you've been doing some lifting and tweaked a muscle, but not so bad as to put you out of action.
However, I think I must have compensated weirdly, as Sunday I had muscle pains in my back instead. These didn't really ease today; however, I think that might be more due to the fact I had a terrible night last night so my body's not really had a proper time to recover.
For some reason I just couldn't get comfortable in bed (I don't know if this was related to the back - it didn't feel so bad when I was lying down), but also I just didn't seem to be able to switch my brain off properly.
So I kept napping and then waking up again. Today I don't feel like I had proper insomnia, but I am tired. I think to some extent it might be an after effect of the fact I slept really well and for a really long time on both Friday and Saturday nights.
I'm wondering if perhaps I "overslept" then and so didn't really need as much sleep on Sunday. However, the reason I'd slept so much was that I'd had proper insomnia on Thursday night and only got about two hours sleep. This was an insomnia that was actually prompted by the temperature.
for some reason this year I really seem to be struggling with sleeping when it's cold. I mean, obviously there always been the odd occasions when it's been really cold and it's woken me up, but this year it seems to be happening a lot. In particular this year it feels like there are cold breezes blowing across my face, though I can't identify where the heck these might be coming from.
Part of the problem is also that the bedsit is like a leaky sieve when it comes to heat, so even if you get it really hot before bed it cools right down after just a couple of hours. And of course I can't sleep if it's too warm, so I have to turn the heating off. I thought I'd cracked it on Saturday when I used my oil-filled radiator and put it next to the bed. This is much more adjustable, but it has a bright light when it's on. As mentioned, on Saturday I slept really well, even though it was really cold outside (thick frost on the cars), but as I also mentioned, this might have been more to do with being tired.
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Monday, 13 January 2014
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
sleepy
I've been having a terrible time sleeping just recently.
I've been doing a bit of research (always dangerous!) and there's a suggestion it might be a form of insomnia. It's not the sort of insomnia you generally think of, where you have trouble getting to sleep, but instead I keep waking up in the middle of the night.
Specifically I've been waking up at around 1AM-4AM for the last 2 weeks.
That's quite a range and what actually appears to be happening is the waking point is drifting earlier and earlier. So I was generally waking at about 4AM when it first started, but on Sunday night it was 1AM.
It seems to be happening irrespective of the actual time I go to sleep as well. So if I go to sleep at 8PM then it happens, but if I go to sleep at 12PM it also still happens. Of course in the former case that means I've gotten a good chunk of sleep and in the latter I've only gotten a few hours. However of course in the former it means having no life.
There's also the problem of reinforcement.
By that I mean that by playing to the timetable (going to bed early in the expectation I'll wake in the middle of the night) it will reinforce the pattern. And, indeed, instead of being insomnia there's a good chance that is what it really is. It's something I've always been susceptible too - over holidays and weekends I will wake up when my alarm would go off and start to fall asleep at my usual time.
The insomnia is called Middle-of-the-night insomnia, which is a rather uninspired name, but it is actually something that seems to be well known. There are some possible medical reasons, but basically it seems to be down to stress, which would match well with all the rubbish stuff that's been happening to me and I still haven't posted about yet.
The frustrating side of it is that I don't have any trouble getting to sleep. No actually, the frustrating side of it is that when I wake up in the middle of the night I initially feel great and rested like I've had a good night's sleep and I think Finally "I've slept through".
It's then only after about half an hour that I start to think "hang on, why is my alarm not going off?" and then look at my curtains for the tell-tale cracks of light that indicate daylight, which I don't see and then I think "oh for fuck's sake, not again".
I then go for a pee and check how bad it is by checking my phone, which is when it gets annoying.
If I get up then by normal day time I'll be shattered. If I try to watch a bit of telly or similar before going back to bed I'll have woken up enough to have the same effect. If I read for a bit I get bored and then lay there often not able to get back to sleep. And if I just try to go back to sleep my mind races and 9 times out of 10 it doesn't work properly.
Even if it does work, the quality of sleep seems to be poor and I am still tired all day.
I've been doing a bit of research (always dangerous!) and there's a suggestion it might be a form of insomnia. It's not the sort of insomnia you generally think of, where you have trouble getting to sleep, but instead I keep waking up in the middle of the night.
Specifically I've been waking up at around 1AM-4AM for the last 2 weeks.
That's quite a range and what actually appears to be happening is the waking point is drifting earlier and earlier. So I was generally waking at about 4AM when it first started, but on Sunday night it was 1AM.
It seems to be happening irrespective of the actual time I go to sleep as well. So if I go to sleep at 8PM then it happens, but if I go to sleep at 12PM it also still happens. Of course in the former case that means I've gotten a good chunk of sleep and in the latter I've only gotten a few hours. However of course in the former it means having no life.
There's also the problem of reinforcement.
By that I mean that by playing to the timetable (going to bed early in the expectation I'll wake in the middle of the night) it will reinforce the pattern. And, indeed, instead of being insomnia there's a good chance that is what it really is. It's something I've always been susceptible too - over holidays and weekends I will wake up when my alarm would go off and start to fall asleep at my usual time.
The insomnia is called Middle-of-the-night insomnia, which is a rather uninspired name, but it is actually something that seems to be well known. There are some possible medical reasons, but basically it seems to be down to stress, which would match well with all the rubbish stuff that's been happening to me and I still haven't posted about yet.
The frustrating side of it is that I don't have any trouble getting to sleep. No actually, the frustrating side of it is that when I wake up in the middle of the night I initially feel great and rested like I've had a good night's sleep and I think Finally "I've slept through".
It's then only after about half an hour that I start to think "hang on, why is my alarm not going off?" and then look at my curtains for the tell-tale cracks of light that indicate daylight, which I don't see and then I think "oh for fuck's sake, not again".
I then go for a pee and check how bad it is by checking my phone, which is when it gets annoying.
If I get up then by normal day time I'll be shattered. If I try to watch a bit of telly or similar before going back to bed I'll have woken up enough to have the same effect. If I read for a bit I get bored and then lay there often not able to get back to sleep. And if I just try to go back to sleep my mind races and 9 times out of 10 it doesn't work properly.
Even if it does work, the quality of sleep seems to be poor and I am still tired all day.
Monday, 22 July 2013
melting
I think I'm melting
This last weekend there was a bit of a let up from the heat, but today it's been even hotter than it has been. It also seems much more humid today. The only small element of comfort I've been taking in the heat has been that the humidity hasn't been too high, but today it's been hot and sticky.
It's been costing me a fortune of course as I've been having to have the air conditioner on in order to bring things down into a more acceptable range for sleeping. One of the problems I have is that I can't have the windows open at night because of the risk of mosquitos (I react rather badly to their bites) but also I have to have the black bags on the windows in order to block out the light.
Unfortunately the way the sun shines on my bedsit is quite inconvenient as it tends to cause it to heat up quite a lot in the late afternoon / early evening, just when you don't want it to.
I have discovered a bit of a trick with one of my fans, though. I have to turn the air con off to actually go to bed, but I have a big vertical fan that has a timer on it. What seems to work quite well, therefore, is if I turn that on for a short period after the aircon is off then it blows across me, helping to keep me cool, but obviously the timer means it won't then go all night. It's quite loud, so I would be worried it might wake me up if I left it all night, but I tend to get dry eyes and things like that if I have a fan on me too long.
There were no posts last week as I was maxed out on the bid I mentioned. It was a horrible week, actually, if I'm honest.
This last weekend there was a bit of a let up from the heat, but today it's been even hotter than it has been. It also seems much more humid today. The only small element of comfort I've been taking in the heat has been that the humidity hasn't been too high, but today it's been hot and sticky.
It's been costing me a fortune of course as I've been having to have the air conditioner on in order to bring things down into a more acceptable range for sleeping. One of the problems I have is that I can't have the windows open at night because of the risk of mosquitos (I react rather badly to their bites) but also I have to have the black bags on the windows in order to block out the light.
Unfortunately the way the sun shines on my bedsit is quite inconvenient as it tends to cause it to heat up quite a lot in the late afternoon / early evening, just when you don't want it to.
I have discovered a bit of a trick with one of my fans, though. I have to turn the air con off to actually go to bed, but I have a big vertical fan that has a timer on it. What seems to work quite well, therefore, is if I turn that on for a short period after the aircon is off then it blows across me, helping to keep me cool, but obviously the timer means it won't then go all night. It's quite loud, so I would be worried it might wake me up if I left it all night, but I tend to get dry eyes and things like that if I have a fan on me too long.
There were no posts last week as I was maxed out on the bid I mentioned. It was a horrible week, actually, if I'm honest.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
shattered
So I've obviously not been posting the last few days.
To be honest I've hardly been at work the last few days - Monday and Wednesday I was at meetings away from work and Tuesday I had so much to do that I didn't even open my web-browser, let alone think about writing a blog.
Today I appear to be paying for all this activity as I am utterly shattered. And it's not because I was up particularly late or had trouble sleeping - I've just been working so hard that I've run out of steam.
I could honestly go home right now and just fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I came in last Sunday and did a reasonable day. The morning was most successful, particularly as I developed something of a headache in the afternoon. To be honest it wasn't as useful a session as the previous time I worked the Sunday.
To be honest I've hardly been at work the last few days - Monday and Wednesday I was at meetings away from work and Tuesday I had so much to do that I didn't even open my web-browser, let alone think about writing a blog.
Today I appear to be paying for all this activity as I am utterly shattered. And it's not because I was up particularly late or had trouble sleeping - I've just been working so hard that I've run out of steam.
I could honestly go home right now and just fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I came in last Sunday and did a reasonable day. The morning was most successful, particularly as I developed something of a headache in the afternoon. To be honest it wasn't as useful a session as the previous time I worked the Sunday.
Friday, 27 July 2012
proof were it needed
So there's a thing.
Yesterday I wrote two blog entries - one to post on Thursday itself and one to post today.
Only it turns out that I've posted both yesterday. I guess that proves just how confused and dazed I was!
And it's not improved a whole lot today as I woke up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig. It was really hot and sticky and I had to turn the aircon on again, which is impossible to sleep through, so I've basically been up since about 3AM.
Quite why it was too hot to sleep last night but not earlier in the week, I'm not sure, but I'd guess it's something to do with the fact they're forecasting a dip in temperatures and a return of the rain today.
Yesterday I wrote two blog entries - one to post on Thursday itself and one to post today.
Only it turns out that I've posted both yesterday. I guess that proves just how confused and dazed I was!
And it's not improved a whole lot today as I woke up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig. It was really hot and sticky and I had to turn the aircon on again, which is impossible to sleep through, so I've basically been up since about 3AM.
Quite why it was too hot to sleep last night but not earlier in the week, I'm not sure, but I'd guess it's something to do with the fact they're forecasting a dip in temperatures and a return of the rain today.
Friday, 22 June 2012
wakey, wakey
I was up at a stupid time again this morning.
3AM this time.
I've discussed it before, but this time of year is terrible for me because it doesn't get dark until really late and I find brightness the most difficult thing to overcome when trying to get to sleep. But then, as a double whammy, it gets light super early as well, so a bit of my body clock kicks in when it sees the brightness and goes "it's morning, wake up."
The real problem when waking up at 3AM is that for the first few hours while I lay there I feel totally wide awake and alert. This makes it impossible to get back to sleep. I therefore try doing something else, like watch recorded TV or read.
However, after a few hours this initial wide awake feeling wears off, but by then it's generally too late to try to get back to sleep. I therefore end up getting up and going to work.
I got to work at 7AM this morning. But what makes this horrible is that we don't work flexi, so I can't then go home at 4PM or anything - No, I'm here for the best part of 12 hours.
The other problem I have this summer is I'm trying to find a new job so that's throwing into the mix two things - nervousness and excitement. Naturally I'm nervous when doing interviews and nervous about my current employer finding out I'm looking for a job. But I'm also finding it all quite exciting - new possibilities are opening up for me and I'm actually quite enjoying it (as well as also, obviously being nervous about that too - what if I make the wrong decision?).
On that front I've gotten another interview arranged for next Friday. This one actually seems like a bit of an off the wall choice, but it seems all the more interesting for it.
It's the Valencia Grand Pr... *snore* - Oh, sorry, drifted off then. Could be the lack of sleep, but I'm guessing it's more likely to be an attempt at a humorous reference to how terribly boring the Valencia Grand Prix usually is.
You never know, the tyres may liven it up, or we may get yet another winner. Who knows, maybe there's been some secret cabalistic agreement that all the drivers get to win this year? If so they've made a bit of an error of judgment as there are only 24 drivers and only 20 races!
3AM this time.
I've discussed it before, but this time of year is terrible for me because it doesn't get dark until really late and I find brightness the most difficult thing to overcome when trying to get to sleep. But then, as a double whammy, it gets light super early as well, so a bit of my body clock kicks in when it sees the brightness and goes "it's morning, wake up."
The real problem when waking up at 3AM is that for the first few hours while I lay there I feel totally wide awake and alert. This makes it impossible to get back to sleep. I therefore try doing something else, like watch recorded TV or read.
However, after a few hours this initial wide awake feeling wears off, but by then it's generally too late to try to get back to sleep. I therefore end up getting up and going to work.
I got to work at 7AM this morning. But what makes this horrible is that we don't work flexi, so I can't then go home at 4PM or anything - No, I'm here for the best part of 12 hours.
The other problem I have this summer is I'm trying to find a new job so that's throwing into the mix two things - nervousness and excitement. Naturally I'm nervous when doing interviews and nervous about my current employer finding out I'm looking for a job. But I'm also finding it all quite exciting - new possibilities are opening up for me and I'm actually quite enjoying it (as well as also, obviously being nervous about that too - what if I make the wrong decision?).
On that front I've gotten another interview arranged for next Friday. This one actually seems like a bit of an off the wall choice, but it seems all the more interesting for it.
It's the Valencia Grand Pr... *snore* - Oh, sorry, drifted off then. Could be the lack of sleep, but I'm guessing it's more likely to be an attempt at a humorous reference to how terribly boring the Valencia Grand Prix usually is.
You never know, the tyres may liven it up, or we may get yet another winner. Who knows, maybe there's been some secret cabalistic agreement that all the drivers get to win this year? If so they've made a bit of an error of judgment as there are only 24 drivers and only 20 races!
Monday, 21 May 2012
both coming and going
I had a horribly busy / tiring weekend for some reason.
I've mentioned before the troubles that I was having meeting my footwear needs, though I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I've been wanting to get a new mattress as well. Well I looked online and saw that the nearest millets was in Aldershot and they also have some big furniture type stores there as well, so I decided that I would try to knock everything on the head in one weekend.
The plan was I'd do my washing as usual first thing then head up to Aldershot for opening time, park at the furniture store, nip into town to get work shoes and walking shoes and then head back to get the mattress. I'd then unload all of these before heading into Aldershot with the primary intention of posting some parcels I had to send but also in case the shoes were still outstanding.
I also needed to buy some bits from smiths and Tesco's so I could park up in Tesco's in Aldershot and then walk into town. This walking would also help me tick my walking allocation box for the day too.
Good plan and it sort of worked - I got all of the things done, including the mattress, although there was one downside. The out-of-town furniture places have gotten a company to manage the parking since I last went there (we're talking years since I last went) and one of the conditions they have is that you don't leave the site and of course I did, so they've charged me.
I've actually just been doing some searching and there are quite a few websites (including some YouTube clips from watchdog) saying these aren't really legally enforceable.
Anyway, having bought the mattress it was a hell of a struggle getting it home. It's actually oddly deep (as in "high") and although it's surprisingly light it's rather inflexible. I only drive a small car so I was fiddling about putting seats down and taking off headrests and all sorts to cram it in.
I did get it in eventually but it was a bit dodgy driving as it was difficult to get to the gear stick. I remember thinking as I set off that it'd be a bit dodgy if the police saw me and of course on the drive back there was a police car that had pulled someone over (for speeding I guess)!
The reason for sending the parcels is I made a bit of a decision to get on and rip a bunch of anime DVDs and put them up for sale. I had actually started doing this with my normal DVDs but got a bit side-tracked with the whole contracting work, but I got a couple of hefty credit card bills and it kinda spurred me into action to try and get the cash flowing again if I'm honest.
The other issue was that on Thursday night I had real trouble sleeping and Friday night I wasn't able to catch up, which meant that by Saturday afternoon I was absolutely shattered. Sunday I felt so tired that I didn't go for any walk or anything - indeed I didn't actually leave the bedsit
I've mentioned before the troubles that I was having meeting my footwear needs, though I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I've been wanting to get a new mattress as well. Well I looked online and saw that the nearest millets was in Aldershot and they also have some big furniture type stores there as well, so I decided that I would try to knock everything on the head in one weekend.
The plan was I'd do my washing as usual first thing then head up to Aldershot for opening time, park at the furniture store, nip into town to get work shoes and walking shoes and then head back to get the mattress. I'd then unload all of these before heading into Aldershot with the primary intention of posting some parcels I had to send but also in case the shoes were still outstanding.
I also needed to buy some bits from smiths and Tesco's so I could park up in Tesco's in Aldershot and then walk into town. This walking would also help me tick my walking allocation box for the day too.
Good plan and it sort of worked - I got all of the things done, including the mattress, although there was one downside. The out-of-town furniture places have gotten a company to manage the parking since I last went there (we're talking years since I last went) and one of the conditions they have is that you don't leave the site and of course I did, so they've charged me.
I've actually just been doing some searching and there are quite a few websites (including some YouTube clips from watchdog) saying these aren't really legally enforceable.
Anyway, having bought the mattress it was a hell of a struggle getting it home. It's actually oddly deep (as in "high") and although it's surprisingly light it's rather inflexible. I only drive a small car so I was fiddling about putting seats down and taking off headrests and all sorts to cram it in.
I did get it in eventually but it was a bit dodgy driving as it was difficult to get to the gear stick. I remember thinking as I set off that it'd be a bit dodgy if the police saw me and of course on the drive back there was a police car that had pulled someone over (for speeding I guess)!
The reason for sending the parcels is I made a bit of a decision to get on and rip a bunch of anime DVDs and put them up for sale. I had actually started doing this with my normal DVDs but got a bit side-tracked with the whole contracting work, but I got a couple of hefty credit card bills and it kinda spurred me into action to try and get the cash flowing again if I'm honest.
The other issue was that on Thursday night I had real trouble sleeping and Friday night I wasn't able to catch up, which meant that by Saturday afternoon I was absolutely shattered. Sunday I felt so tired that I didn't go for any walk or anything - indeed I didn't actually leave the bedsit
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
moon shine
I had a terrible night's sleep last night.
It didn't get off to a good start in that I was rather late going to bed, but this was made worse by the fact that the moon seemed to be incredibly bright. I think it was due to a lack of clouds and an unfortunate coincidence of timing to when I went to sleep, but it was like having a spotlight on outside the window.
I'm kinda used to having "spotlights" out that particular window, as the neighbours are total fuckers for leaving really bright lights on or not closing their curtains (one lot don't even have any curtains). My technique for cutting out the light is therefore quite developed and involves the use of black bin bags.
Well that worked okay, but the moon was so bright that its light was reflecting off of stuff in the front garden on the opposite side and making that really bright too. I wasn't really prepared for that, so I improvised something together but it wasn't perfect.
It was also rather chilly, which meant I had to put the heating on and got the timings all wrong so that it was too hot when I went to bed (a reflection of going to bed too late as well, to be honest).
Once I did get away I slept pretty well, but then in the very early hours I was awoken by a desperate need to go to the toilet. Now I 'm actually kinda used to this as nowadays my bladder struggles to go an entire night without me needing to get up to pee.
However, this was around the other side shall we say.
It was actually revenge from the weekend when I ate a load of fruit and high fibre stuff. Las week was really bad in that I was basically hungry all the time and by the weekend I was kinda struggling not to eat crap so I ended up buying lots of fruit and cereals.
My diet was therefore rather high fibre and while my guts are generally pretty strong such an influx has consequences. And last night those consequences hit (not wanting to dwell too much but my transit times have always been slow - most people it would have hit them a lot sooner).
Anyway, while I wouldn't classify it as diarrhoea or anything I did have to get up to go a couple of times. I therefore was really awake by about 5AM and decided to just cut my losses and ended up watching some telly I'd recorded.
I'm therefore quite tired as I write this. To be honest it hasn't helped things that I've been setting up my new computer. I mean that's something I enjoy, but it's always weirdly stressful and tiring. Well, it's quite intense anyway.
The new machine is quite good. It's not a super powerful machine (especially compared to what I've got at home) but it's a lot quicker than my current machine and light years ahead of anything else in the office.
It didn't get off to a good start in that I was rather late going to bed, but this was made worse by the fact that the moon seemed to be incredibly bright. I think it was due to a lack of clouds and an unfortunate coincidence of timing to when I went to sleep, but it was like having a spotlight on outside the window.
I'm kinda used to having "spotlights" out that particular window, as the neighbours are total fuckers for leaving really bright lights on or not closing their curtains (one lot don't even have any curtains). My technique for cutting out the light is therefore quite developed and involves the use of black bin bags.
Well that worked okay, but the moon was so bright that its light was reflecting off of stuff in the front garden on the opposite side and making that really bright too. I wasn't really prepared for that, so I improvised something together but it wasn't perfect.
It was also rather chilly, which meant I had to put the heating on and got the timings all wrong so that it was too hot when I went to bed (a reflection of going to bed too late as well, to be honest).
Once I did get away I slept pretty well, but then in the very early hours I was awoken by a desperate need to go to the toilet. Now I 'm actually kinda used to this as nowadays my bladder struggles to go an entire night without me needing to get up to pee.
However, this was around the other side shall we say.
It was actually revenge from the weekend when I ate a load of fruit and high fibre stuff. Las week was really bad in that I was basically hungry all the time and by the weekend I was kinda struggling not to eat crap so I ended up buying lots of fruit and cereals.
My diet was therefore rather high fibre and while my guts are generally pretty strong such an influx has consequences. And last night those consequences hit (not wanting to dwell too much but my transit times have always been slow - most people it would have hit them a lot sooner).
Anyway, while I wouldn't classify it as diarrhoea or anything I did have to get up to go a couple of times. I therefore was really awake by about 5AM and decided to just cut my losses and ended up watching some telly I'd recorded.
I'm therefore quite tired as I write this. To be honest it hasn't helped things that I've been setting up my new computer. I mean that's something I enjoy, but it's always weirdly stressful and tiring. Well, it's quite intense anyway.
The new machine is quite good. It's not a super powerful machine (especially compared to what I've got at home) but it's a lot quicker than my current machine and light years ahead of anything else in the office.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
noises of the night
I mentioned before that when I got back I'd had a radiator installed and that necessitated a move of my bed across to the other side of the room. Now that actually sounds a lot more spectacular than it was - it was actually a move of about 1.5 metres.
However, it did mean I was now closer to a different window compared to where I was before and so it took me a while to get used to sleeping in this position. They reckon it can take up to three days to get used to sleeping in a different bed, but I don't know if the same applies to moving your bed.
Anyway, point is that I felt a bit disjointed for a while and I'm still not operating at 100% smoothness after the change.
And that's when the noise started.
Initially I thought it was a reflection of the aforementioned change - I was now closer to a different window, so there was perhaps a change in noises. In particular the noise was a bit like the dull roar you get from traffic noise even through double glazing.
However, it was too constant in tone and volume to be traffic noise.
I then tried simply opening my window - it sounded a bit like the noise my air conditioner makes so I thought maybe someone had a heater going outside. No, I don't understand my thinking either - I think I was perhaps wondering if it was maybe a set of temporary traffic lights that were run from a generator, something like that maybe?
But when I opened my windows there was a really weird effect where it was almost drowned out by the general background noise. In other words, it was louder inside with the windows closed than outside.
I therefore then investigated the actual radiator itself - was it perhaps making a noise?
Not as far as I could tell.
So I left it - the noise was there, but it wasn't too loud and I often wear ear plugs to bed anyway, so I could resurrect that practice.
And then I discovered the cause when I went for my walk, and it's a weird one.
Basically, the Farnham Rugby club has a built a new ground and associated with it is a big building. One of these fitness places is on the same site, so I assume the big building is mainly a gym, but with a few bars and stuff for the rugby club.
Well, as I was walking along with my ear buds in early Sunday morning I could here the same noise I hear at night. I took my ear buds out and there it was - horrendously loud and coming from the direction of this big building. However, it was really foggy, so I couldn't really see where it was, so I wandered down to investigate.
There's a dirt path that goes behind the facility along the edge of the fence and I walked along there until I got right behind it and discovered this horrendously loud fan-like noise. Given the correlation with my air conditioner, my guess is that's what it is, though why they need to run a huge air conditioner all night in the middle of November I haven't a clue.
What I think is actually happening is that the noise is being carried up to where I live (which is about half a mile away) and, because of the particular frequency of the noise, it is getting through my double glazing and then bouncing off the side of the inset part for the window and being reflected back to where I sleep.
In other words it's rather a conflagration of circumstances.
Hopefully they've just been running it over night for a particular reason, though what that could be and why so many nights I don't know.
I also noted on my wander round they'd put some trees in, but they were tiny little starter trees and will likely take years to mature to the state of providing any kind of sound baffling.
However, it did mean I was now closer to a different window compared to where I was before and so it took me a while to get used to sleeping in this position. They reckon it can take up to three days to get used to sleeping in a different bed, but I don't know if the same applies to moving your bed.
Anyway, point is that I felt a bit disjointed for a while and I'm still not operating at 100% smoothness after the change.
And that's when the noise started.
Initially I thought it was a reflection of the aforementioned change - I was now closer to a different window, so there was perhaps a change in noises. In particular the noise was a bit like the dull roar you get from traffic noise even through double glazing.
However, it was too constant in tone and volume to be traffic noise.
I then tried simply opening my window - it sounded a bit like the noise my air conditioner makes so I thought maybe someone had a heater going outside. No, I don't understand my thinking either - I think I was perhaps wondering if it was maybe a set of temporary traffic lights that were run from a generator, something like that maybe?
But when I opened my windows there was a really weird effect where it was almost drowned out by the general background noise. In other words, it was louder inside with the windows closed than outside.
I therefore then investigated the actual radiator itself - was it perhaps making a noise?
Not as far as I could tell.
So I left it - the noise was there, but it wasn't too loud and I often wear ear plugs to bed anyway, so I could resurrect that practice.
And then I discovered the cause when I went for my walk, and it's a weird one.
Basically, the Farnham Rugby club has a built a new ground and associated with it is a big building. One of these fitness places is on the same site, so I assume the big building is mainly a gym, but with a few bars and stuff for the rugby club.
Well, as I was walking along with my ear buds in early Sunday morning I could here the same noise I hear at night. I took my ear buds out and there it was - horrendously loud and coming from the direction of this big building. However, it was really foggy, so I couldn't really see where it was, so I wandered down to investigate.
There's a dirt path that goes behind the facility along the edge of the fence and I walked along there until I got right behind it and discovered this horrendously loud fan-like noise. Given the correlation with my air conditioner, my guess is that's what it is, though why they need to run a huge air conditioner all night in the middle of November I haven't a clue.
What I think is actually happening is that the noise is being carried up to where I live (which is about half a mile away) and, because of the particular frequency of the noise, it is getting through my double glazing and then bouncing off the side of the inset part for the window and being reflected back to where I sleep.
In other words it's rather a conflagration of circumstances.
Hopefully they've just been running it over night for a particular reason, though what that could be and why so many nights I don't know.
I also noted on my wander round they'd put some trees in, but they were tiny little starter trees and will likely take years to mature to the state of providing any kind of sound baffling.
Monday, 10 October 2011
japanometric
I have no idea what I mean by that as a title.
But then to be honest, I'm struggling to know quite what I mean by anything today, as I got no sleep on Saturday night.
Well, I've a sneaking suspicion I got about an hour at 4:30AM. But certainly from 11:00PM on Saturday night I was doing stuff right through until about 4:00AM on Sunday morning.
I don't really know why I didn't get any sleep. I actually went to bed early on Saturday, but I laid there for so long totally wide awake that it was apparent that the whole effort was pretty much wasted. I think a big part of the problem was that I'd basically done nothing all Saturday. I mean, I'd been busy all day, but what I was doing was fiddly and mentally taxing, rather than physically taxing.
I'd also been eating badly (I gained a pound on Sunday's weigh in, though it wasn't a proper like-for-like consistent weigh in) all day, so I think I'd managed to kind of build up a chunk of energy that meant when I tried to go to bed, I just wasn't tired at all.
And I didn't get tired until very early in the morning, which then left me with a bit of a dilemma, because the Japanese Grand Prix was on. Now I have to confess I'd obviously gotten the wrong end of the stick the when it was on, as I thought it started at about 4:00AM. However, the actual race didn't start until 7:00AM, with an hours build up before hand.
If I'd known it didn't start until then I'd probably have tried to get a few hours sleep, but instead I was waiting for it to start and perhaps drifted off for a bit.
This tiredness did hamper my enjoyment of the race. Indeed, it hampered all of my day, if I'm honest. The race looked like quite a good one, but I kept loosing focus and being distracted, due to my tiredness.
I didn't make the same mistake on Sunday, as I did loads of stuff that included washing my car and going for a one and a half hour walk. I was truly shattered by the afternoon, which was great, but left me with another dilemma.
This time, the problem was going to bed too early. This would potentially allow me to catch up on lost sleep, but there was also the potential problem of waking up very early in the morning and therefore mess up my body clock, setting it to that I keep waking up early in the morning.
In the end I stayed up until about 8:30PM, but this morning I was shattered when I got up. I'll therefore try to go to bed a bit early tonight as well, although I'm doubting I'll manage that.
But then to be honest, I'm struggling to know quite what I mean by anything today, as I got no sleep on Saturday night.
Well, I've a sneaking suspicion I got about an hour at 4:30AM. But certainly from 11:00PM on Saturday night I was doing stuff right through until about 4:00AM on Sunday morning.
I don't really know why I didn't get any sleep. I actually went to bed early on Saturday, but I laid there for so long totally wide awake that it was apparent that the whole effort was pretty much wasted. I think a big part of the problem was that I'd basically done nothing all Saturday. I mean, I'd been busy all day, but what I was doing was fiddly and mentally taxing, rather than physically taxing.
I'd also been eating badly (I gained a pound on Sunday's weigh in, though it wasn't a proper like-for-like consistent weigh in) all day, so I think I'd managed to kind of build up a chunk of energy that meant when I tried to go to bed, I just wasn't tired at all.
And I didn't get tired until very early in the morning, which then left me with a bit of a dilemma, because the Japanese Grand Prix was on. Now I have to confess I'd obviously gotten the wrong end of the stick the when it was on, as I thought it started at about 4:00AM. However, the actual race didn't start until 7:00AM, with an hours build up before hand.
If I'd known it didn't start until then I'd probably have tried to get a few hours sleep, but instead I was waiting for it to start and perhaps drifted off for a bit.
This tiredness did hamper my enjoyment of the race. Indeed, it hampered all of my day, if I'm honest. The race looked like quite a good one, but I kept loosing focus and being distracted, due to my tiredness.
I didn't make the same mistake on Sunday, as I did loads of stuff that included washing my car and going for a one and a half hour walk. I was truly shattered by the afternoon, which was great, but left me with another dilemma.
This time, the problem was going to bed too early. This would potentially allow me to catch up on lost sleep, but there was also the potential problem of waking up very early in the morning and therefore mess up my body clock, setting it to that I keep waking up early in the morning.
In the end I stayed up until about 8:30PM, but this morning I was shattered when I got up. I'll therefore try to go to bed a bit early tonight as well, although I'm doubting I'll manage that.
Friday, 2 September 2011
another day missed
So obviously there was no bloggage post yesterday.
Hopefully the reasons are pretty obvious. Having had very little sleep on the Tuesday night, Wednesday was a bit of a right off, so stuff got pushed forward to Thursday. I also had two meetings on Thursday, so they sucked up loads of time too.
And of course I was still pretty tired on Thursday, so I pretty much went straight to bed when I got home. I certainly wasn't up for writing my blog post in the evening.
So work has been horrible just recently. It feels a lot like I'm just managing to keep my nose bobbing above the water as the flood comes pouring in. Luckily I've not had to sacrifice any other weekends, but if any more stuff comes in for me to do I'm really going to struggle. And it's pretty fortunate that one of my colleagues is now back in the office and she's super competent and has helped by picking a load of stuff up that I might have had to be more involved in.
But what else has happened?
Well, I lost another pound at the last weekend, which was a very nice surprise. However, my guess is I'll have put it back on, as I've really been eating badly this week. I'm not beating myself up too much, though, because with work being really heavy and the whole lack of sleep it's probably a natural (but obviously not desirable) knock-on effect.
Also there was the Spa Grand Prix last weekend, which I've not really talked about.
It was okay. I have to confess I was a bit disappointed with the outcome, and for some reason the latter half of the race was a bit dull. If I'm honest, though, I was a bit distracted when I watched it. As I mentioned before I'd watched loads of telly and I think I was reaching overload by the time I sat down to watch the race itself.
The biggest disappointment, though, was Lewis, who managed to crash into Kamui Kobayashi. IT looked like he basically wasn't paying enough attention and thought he was fully past Kobayashi. However, he wasn't so he essentially drove into him. It happened right at the end of one of the fastest straights, so was a big accident and took him out of the race.
It's a cleaning weekend coming up. I'm not entirely sure if do the cleaning myself is really saving me money. The problem is that I'm pretty sure the machines in the local laundrette are more expensive than those where I used to go, so where I save in some ways, I loose out in others.
I think long term there'll be a saving, but it's not going to represent a massive windfall of cash.
And I could do with one of those - I got a letter the other day that my electricity is going up by 11%, which is an enormous price hike. Yay for capitalism, right?
Hopefully the reasons are pretty obvious. Having had very little sleep on the Tuesday night, Wednesday was a bit of a right off, so stuff got pushed forward to Thursday. I also had two meetings on Thursday, so they sucked up loads of time too.
And of course I was still pretty tired on Thursday, so I pretty much went straight to bed when I got home. I certainly wasn't up for writing my blog post in the evening.
So work has been horrible just recently. It feels a lot like I'm just managing to keep my nose bobbing above the water as the flood comes pouring in. Luckily I've not had to sacrifice any other weekends, but if any more stuff comes in for me to do I'm really going to struggle. And it's pretty fortunate that one of my colleagues is now back in the office and she's super competent and has helped by picking a load of stuff up that I might have had to be more involved in.
But what else has happened?
Well, I lost another pound at the last weekend, which was a very nice surprise. However, my guess is I'll have put it back on, as I've really been eating badly this week. I'm not beating myself up too much, though, because with work being really heavy and the whole lack of sleep it's probably a natural (but obviously not desirable) knock-on effect.
Also there was the Spa Grand Prix last weekend, which I've not really talked about.
It was okay. I have to confess I was a bit disappointed with the outcome, and for some reason the latter half of the race was a bit dull. If I'm honest, though, I was a bit distracted when I watched it. As I mentioned before I'd watched loads of telly and I think I was reaching overload by the time I sat down to watch the race itself.
The biggest disappointment, though, was Lewis, who managed to crash into Kamui Kobayashi. IT looked like he basically wasn't paying enough attention and thought he was fully past Kobayashi. However, he wasn't so he essentially drove into him. It happened right at the end of one of the fastest straights, so was a big accident and took him out of the race.
It's a cleaning weekend coming up. I'm not entirely sure if do the cleaning myself is really saving me money. The problem is that I'm pretty sure the machines in the local laundrette are more expensive than those where I used to go, so where I save in some ways, I loose out in others.
I think long term there'll be a saving, but it's not going to represent a massive windfall of cash.
And I could do with one of those - I got a letter the other day that my electricity is going up by 11%, which is an enormous price hike. Yay for capitalism, right?
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
insomnomnia
Horrible night last night, as I think I got about an hour's sleep.
The worst aspect of it was that I don't really know why. My best guess is that it was a combination of factors; these being eating too much, not doing any exercise, spending all day driving and a meeting.
Basically, I had a meeting all the way down in Dorchester, which meant I spent around 5 hours on the road yesterday. It was a useful meeting, but it did mean all my usual routines were blown apart.
Also, by the time I got back it was so late I did the classic of going to the supermarket to get something to eat and, being starving by that time, bought a load of crap. A load of high calorie crap. High calorie crap I then ate a loads of. And of course, having been sat down driving all day I didn't do any walking.
So I think the insomnia was brought on by a load of energy (both nervous as a result of the meeting, and physical as a result of high calorie food late at night and nothing to burn it off.
It's a pretty flimsy bit of reasoning, but certainly the more traditional causes of my insomnia (nervousness, excitement and late night caffeine consumption) weren't present at all, so I don't have any better reasons.
Anyway, upshot is I'm shattered today and am barely able to concentrate on my work, let alone proper blog posts.
The worst aspect of it was that I don't really know why. My best guess is that it was a combination of factors; these being eating too much, not doing any exercise, spending all day driving and a meeting.
Basically, I had a meeting all the way down in Dorchester, which meant I spent around 5 hours on the road yesterday. It was a useful meeting, but it did mean all my usual routines were blown apart.
Also, by the time I got back it was so late I did the classic of going to the supermarket to get something to eat and, being starving by that time, bought a load of crap. A load of high calorie crap. High calorie crap I then ate a loads of. And of course, having been sat down driving all day I didn't do any walking.
So I think the insomnia was brought on by a load of energy (both nervous as a result of the meeting, and physical as a result of high calorie food late at night and nothing to burn it off.
It's a pretty flimsy bit of reasoning, but certainly the more traditional causes of my insomnia (nervousness, excitement and late night caffeine consumption) weren't present at all, so I don't have any better reasons.
Anyway, upshot is I'm shattered today and am barely able to concentrate on my work, let alone proper blog posts.
Friday, 5 August 2011
sods and bits
Turns out if you want Sky Sports 1 and/or 2 via BT Vision (their TV thing) you have to pay an additional subscription, so there goes that idea :(.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
sods and bits
Turns out if you want Sky Sports 1 and/or 2 via BT Vision (their TV thing) you have to pay an additional subscription, so there goes that idea :(.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
i hate this time of year
Today, Tuesday the 21st of June, is the summer solstice.
The summer solstice is the longest day of the year (well, it's 24 hours long, just like every other day - I mean it has the most daylight) and it therefore marks one of my worst days of the year. Well, in terms of sleep, that is.
I believe it also marks the point when summer starts to get properly hot - the period when I'm traditionally the least comfortable, though this year I obviously weigh about a fifth less than I have done in previous years, so hopefully it will be a bit more bearable Certainly I've found spring to be quite chilly, but I also think it has generally been quite cool compared to seasonal averages.
But the point is that with it being the longest day, that means the sun doesn't set until very late at night. And of course, because it doesn't get instantly dark when the sun sets, it's still quite light until getting on for midnight. This lateness of setting is also further exaggerated by us being on British Summer Time.
Now I appreciate that this has many advantages and certainly, as an early riser, it's nice to get up and it be light to a degree, though to be frank, how early it becomes light is also a problem, because my body seems to react to the light by waking me up. So it becomes an attack from both ends - when I go to bed it's still light out and it gets light at about 4, so I sometimes wake up.
I mean surely it can't be right that I go to bed at 10 and when I switch my bedside lamp off, sufficient light streams in around the curtain edges to make it feel like I've gone to bed in the middle of the afternoon? That's got to be wrong.
Still, at least from here on the nights start getting longer.
Tomorrow I'll be posting up my usual DVD rental review, but after that I'm actually off on holiday for a couple of days. My landlord is on holiday and I'm going to use the opportunity to do some shed sorting out stuff.
Hopefully I'll then be able to get a load of stuff on e-bay - the pile in the shed seems to have grown again and I could do with generate some cash. Well, really I need to actually do something about the cash I've got locked up n unwatched DVDs and unplayed games, but then that's a continuing issue - the shed is the priority for the weekend.
Well, I say all that. I'm prewriting this and the weather forecast isn't great and my landlord traditionally doesn't have much tolerance for poor weather, so he may already have come back by the time I'm posting this!
The summer solstice is the longest day of the year (well, it's 24 hours long, just like every other day - I mean it has the most daylight) and it therefore marks one of my worst days of the year. Well, in terms of sleep, that is.
I believe it also marks the point when summer starts to get properly hot - the period when I'm traditionally the least comfortable, though this year I obviously weigh about a fifth less than I have done in previous years, so hopefully it will be a bit more bearable Certainly I've found spring to be quite chilly, but I also think it has generally been quite cool compared to seasonal averages.
But the point is that with it being the longest day, that means the sun doesn't set until very late at night. And of course, because it doesn't get instantly dark when the sun sets, it's still quite light until getting on for midnight. This lateness of setting is also further exaggerated by us being on British Summer Time.
Now I appreciate that this has many advantages and certainly, as an early riser, it's nice to get up and it be light to a degree, though to be frank, how early it becomes light is also a problem, because my body seems to react to the light by waking me up. So it becomes an attack from both ends - when I go to bed it's still light out and it gets light at about 4, so I sometimes wake up.
I mean surely it can't be right that I go to bed at 10 and when I switch my bedside lamp off, sufficient light streams in around the curtain edges to make it feel like I've gone to bed in the middle of the afternoon? That's got to be wrong.
Still, at least from here on the nights start getting longer.
Tomorrow I'll be posting up my usual DVD rental review, but after that I'm actually off on holiday for a couple of days. My landlord is on holiday and I'm going to use the opportunity to do some shed sorting out stuff.
Hopefully I'll then be able to get a load of stuff on e-bay - the pile in the shed seems to have grown again and I could do with generate some cash. Well, really I need to actually do something about the cash I've got locked up n unwatched DVDs and unplayed games, but then that's a continuing issue - the shed is the priority for the weekend.
Well, I say all that. I'm prewriting this and the weather forecast isn't great and my landlord traditionally doesn't have much tolerance for poor weather, so he may already have come back by the time I'm posting this!
Monday, 9 May 2011
insomnia
I don't really suffer from insomnia.
Not as a proper condition like people know it, where the insomniac is plagued by an ongoing inability to sleep night after night.
I do, however, occasionally suffer with the odd night where I can't get to sleep. Sometimes it goes on for a couple of nights, but eventually my usual sleep routines will re-assert themselves. I think this is an occasional thing for most people.
I think it's probably more a symptom of stress or some other psychological effect. Certainly when I get a dose of it, as I did last night, the root cause seems to be an inability for my brain to 'shut off'.
Usually I'll lie there with stuff going around and around in my head, consciously aware that I need to clear and becalm my mind in order to get to sleep, but also unable to stop the whirlwind of thoughts that plague me.
The cause I would guess last night was my return to work today. I don't think it relates to any specific worry - I wasn't expecting anything specifically bad, troublesome or difficult to crop up, we're talking more an elevation of the general anxiety I carry about with me every day.
Which is why the thoughts I couldn't shut off weren't really about work. I think - it's a little difficult to recall what they specifically were now, but I remember thinking about the Turkish Grand Prix and also a lot about how I hadn't managed to do everything I'd set out to during holiday. I'll talk more about those later, I guess.
As a result of the insomnia, today I've obviously been rather tired. Generally speaking I'm one of those people who needs to get plenty of sleep or I feel awful all day. The weird thing I find though, is while I'm having the insomnia - lying there, thinking - I don't generally feel tired. The tiredness comes when I wake up after the short amount of sleep I do manage to get just before I wake up.
Normally, once I realise I'm having a bought of insomnia I usually get up for a bit and do something. This is never much more spectacular than read or, more often, bimble about on the web. I'll also usually make myself a cup of hot milk with a splash of honey.
It wouldn't surprise me if the official advice is that these are exactly what you're not supposed to do, but I find if I lie there continuing to fail to get to sleep I get increasingly annoyed and that makes it worse. If I get up for a bit and in some way try to draw a ling under the preceding hours I've found I sometimes then succeed in dropping off.
It wasn't wholly successful last night, but then I guess that's part of the nature of insomnia.
Not as a proper condition like people know it, where the insomniac is plagued by an ongoing inability to sleep night after night.
I do, however, occasionally suffer with the odd night where I can't get to sleep. Sometimes it goes on for a couple of nights, but eventually my usual sleep routines will re-assert themselves. I think this is an occasional thing for most people.
I think it's probably more a symptom of stress or some other psychological effect. Certainly when I get a dose of it, as I did last night, the root cause seems to be an inability for my brain to 'shut off'.
Usually I'll lie there with stuff going around and around in my head, consciously aware that I need to clear and becalm my mind in order to get to sleep, but also unable to stop the whirlwind of thoughts that plague me.
The cause I would guess last night was my return to work today. I don't think it relates to any specific worry - I wasn't expecting anything specifically bad, troublesome or difficult to crop up, we're talking more an elevation of the general anxiety I carry about with me every day.
Which is why the thoughts I couldn't shut off weren't really about work. I think - it's a little difficult to recall what they specifically were now, but I remember thinking about the Turkish Grand Prix and also a lot about how I hadn't managed to do everything I'd set out to during holiday. I'll talk more about those later, I guess.
As a result of the insomnia, today I've obviously been rather tired. Generally speaking I'm one of those people who needs to get plenty of sleep or I feel awful all day. The weird thing I find though, is while I'm having the insomnia - lying there, thinking - I don't generally feel tired. The tiredness comes when I wake up after the short amount of sleep I do manage to get just before I wake up.
Normally, once I realise I'm having a bought of insomnia I usually get up for a bit and do something. This is never much more spectacular than read or, more often, bimble about on the web. I'll also usually make myself a cup of hot milk with a splash of honey.
It wouldn't surprise me if the official advice is that these are exactly what you're not supposed to do, but I find if I lie there continuing to fail to get to sleep I get increasingly annoyed and that makes it worse. If I get up for a bit and in some way try to draw a ling under the preceding hours I've found I sometimes then succeed in dropping off.
It wasn't wholly successful last night, but then I guess that's part of the nature of insomnia.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
more about the sun, it seems
I figured out what I was blathering on about on Tuesday. Or that is to say, I figured out what I was supposed to be blathering on about: lack of sleep.
Basically, when it gets to this time of year I have real trouble sleeping. I mean, all this week it's still really light at 9pm, and that confuses me. For the rest of the year by 9pm it's usually dark, and my brain can go "oh look, it's dark, must be time to sleep".
But this time of year, I find myself going to bed and there's loads of light streaming in through the curtains. It's weird - it's like if you have a lie in at the weekend and you kind of drift into consciousness and it's clearly proper daytime outside, but you're still in bed.
Except it's at night, so I'm tired and want to go to sleep, but another part of my brian is saying actually it's not dark so it's not time for bed yet. What makes it worse, I think is British Summer Time/daylight savings. Without that, it would be dark at a more reasonable time.
Anyway, the upshot is that for a couple of weeks I'm going to be struggling to get to sleep.
I recently started a new book.
I've been a bit derelict with my reading for a while now. This isn't anything unusual - I tend to go in cycles of reading a lot and then nothing for ages. Usually I snap into a reading phase when I get a book I'm excited about reading. In this case that book is "Matter" by Ian M Banks.
I'm a big fan of Banks's sci-fi books - especially the culture novels, which this is one of. I get the impression he'd kind of put the culture (and possibly SF) stuff to bed, but I guess he's found a story he wants to tell... and it's a bit one. The book is some 600 pages long, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest book he's done.
I'm about a fifth of the way through and I'm enjoying it so far. It's really starting to get going - there was quite a lot of establishing stuff to start with, but now the main plot has really kicked in.
I've not actually read any of Banks's non-SF books, although I received his first - Wasp Factory - as a present for my last birthday and am intent on starting them. Banks has a great prose style, which is very readable, so I'm sure I'll enjoy them despite not being SF.
Basically, when it gets to this time of year I have real trouble sleeping. I mean, all this week it's still really light at 9pm, and that confuses me. For the rest of the year by 9pm it's usually dark, and my brain can go "oh look, it's dark, must be time to sleep".
But this time of year, I find myself going to bed and there's loads of light streaming in through the curtains. It's weird - it's like if you have a lie in at the weekend and you kind of drift into consciousness and it's clearly proper daytime outside, but you're still in bed.
Except it's at night, so I'm tired and want to go to sleep, but another part of my brian is saying actually it's not dark so it's not time for bed yet. What makes it worse, I think is British Summer Time/daylight savings. Without that, it would be dark at a more reasonable time.
Anyway, the upshot is that for a couple of weeks I'm going to be struggling to get to sleep.
I recently started a new book.
I've been a bit derelict with my reading for a while now. This isn't anything unusual - I tend to go in cycles of reading a lot and then nothing for ages. Usually I snap into a reading phase when I get a book I'm excited about reading. In this case that book is "Matter" by Ian M Banks.
I'm a big fan of Banks's sci-fi books - especially the culture novels, which this is one of. I get the impression he'd kind of put the culture (and possibly SF) stuff to bed, but I guess he's found a story he wants to tell... and it's a bit one. The book is some 600 pages long, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest book he's done.
I'm about a fifth of the way through and I'm enjoying it so far. It's really starting to get going - there was quite a lot of establishing stuff to start with, but now the main plot has really kicked in.
I've not actually read any of Banks's non-SF books, although I received his first - Wasp Factory - as a present for my last birthday and am intent on starting them. Banks has a great prose style, which is very readable, so I'm sure I'll enjoy them despite not being SF.
more about the sun, it seems
I figured out what I was blathering on about on Tuesday. Or that is to say, I figured out what I was supposed to be blathering on about: lack of sleep.
Basically, when it gets to this time of year I have real trouble sleeping. I mean, all this week it's still really light at 9pm, and that confuses me. For the rest of the year by 9pm it's usually dark, and my brain can go "oh look, it's dark, must be time to sleep".
But this time of year, I find myself going to bed and there's loads of light streaming in through the curtains. It's weird - it's like if you have a lie in at the weekend and you kind of drift into consciousness and it's clearly proper daytime outside, but you're still in bed.
Except it's at night, so I'm tired and want to go to sleep, but another part of my brian is saying actually it's not dark so it's not time for bed yet. What makes it worse, I think is British Summer Time/daylight savings. Without that, it would be dark at a more reasonable time.
Anyway, the upshot is that for a couple of weeks I'm going to be struggling to get to sleep.
I recently started a new book.
I've been a bit derelict with my reading for a while now. This isn't anything unusual - I tend to go in cycles of reading a lot and then nothing for ages. Usually I snap into a reading phase when I get a book I'm excited about reading. In this case that book is "Matter" by Ian M Banks.
I'm a big fan of Banks's sci-fi books - especially the culture novels, which this is one of. I get the impression he'd kind of put the culture (and possibly SF) stuff to bed, but I guess he's found a story he wants to tell... and it's a bit one. The book is some 600 pages long, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest book he's done.
I'm about a fifth of the way through and I'm enjoying it so far. It's really starting to get going - there was quite a lot of establishing stuff to start with, but now the main plot has really kicked in.
I've not actually read any of Banks's non-SF books, although I received his first - Wasp Factory - as a present for my last birthday and am intent on starting them. Banks has a great prose style, which is very readable, so I'm sure I'll enjoy them despite not being SF.
Basically, when it gets to this time of year I have real trouble sleeping. I mean, all this week it's still really light at 9pm, and that confuses me. For the rest of the year by 9pm it's usually dark, and my brain can go "oh look, it's dark, must be time to sleep".
But this time of year, I find myself going to bed and there's loads of light streaming in through the curtains. It's weird - it's like if you have a lie in at the weekend and you kind of drift into consciousness and it's clearly proper daytime outside, but you're still in bed.
Except it's at night, so I'm tired and want to go to sleep, but another part of my brian is saying actually it's not dark so it's not time for bed yet. What makes it worse, I think is British Summer Time/daylight savings. Without that, it would be dark at a more reasonable time.
Anyway, the upshot is that for a couple of weeks I'm going to be struggling to get to sleep.
I recently started a new book.
I've been a bit derelict with my reading for a while now. This isn't anything unusual - I tend to go in cycles of reading a lot and then nothing for ages. Usually I snap into a reading phase when I get a book I'm excited about reading. In this case that book is "Matter" by Ian M Banks.
I'm a big fan of Banks's sci-fi books - especially the culture novels, which this is one of. I get the impression he'd kind of put the culture (and possibly SF) stuff to bed, but I guess he's found a story he wants to tell... and it's a bit one. The book is some 600 pages long, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest book he's done.
I'm about a fifth of the way through and I'm enjoying it so far. It's really starting to get going - there was quite a lot of establishing stuff to start with, but now the main plot has really kicked in.
I've not actually read any of Banks's non-SF books, although I received his first - Wasp Factory - as a present for my last birthday and am intent on starting them. Banks has a great prose style, which is very readable, so I'm sure I'll enjoy them despite not being SF.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
new duvet
I got my new duvet the other week. It's incredibly thin. They use something called "togs" to rate duvets for warmth and this is a 4.5 tog duvet. What that means is that it's only just thicker than a blanket.
Now that may sound daft - why not just use a blanket, or a regular sheet? Well for some reason I cannot get to sleep unless I've got a duvet on me. I've tried many times in years past to sleep without any covers or just a sheet and I cannot do it. There's obviously some psychological thing going on that means I just can't.
I'm actually pretty neurotic when it comes to sleeping - I have a whole host of... well, I suppose rituals would be the word, that are essentially there to ensure I go to sleep.
Basically, a summary of the basic ritual goes something like-
First off, I ensure all curtains are fully closed and that all lights are turned off or covered over. Now I don't just mean normal lights. You know how a lot of electrical appliance have some sort of LED that indicates they're in standby, or they have a digital clock or something that emits light? Well I can't have those shinning at me.
It's kinda like a brightness threshold - below a certain level I'm happy, but above and the light will keep me up. This can be so bad for me that I actually have to pin black bin bags to the curtains in my bed-sit, because they're white and crap at blocking out light in the summer or if my landlord leaves a light on.
I then read for at least 10 minutes. This is actually a bit of an odd one, because I know a lot of guides for people with insomnia say you shouldn't do anything stimulating, like read or watch TV before bed. But I dunno, it works for me.
What makes it really ritualistic is that I have to be laying on my side and I have to be in my nightclothes. If I'm not, then it's just ordinary reading and it doesn't help.
After reading I switch off the light and continue to lay on my side. Here, I'm consciously trying clear my mind. I try to force out anything resembling active thought and concentrate on stillness and nothing.
It's also at this stage that any noise will become apparent. Like light, I can't put up with noise while I'm trying to sleep, so if there's a party going on somewhere or my PVR is whirring away, I'll put in my earplugs.
This 'calming down' can last anywhere from 5minutes to half an hour, but once I'm relaxed, I'll turn onto my front and that's when I'll drift off.
At least, I assume I drift off. What will actually happen is the next thing I'll be aware of is waking up. This will usually take one of two forms - waking up very early, desperate for a piss, or wake up about 15 minutes before my alarm is due to go off (also needing a pee).
You'll notice there's no mention of dreaming - I can count the number of dreams I remember on one hand. I sometimes have a sort of a daydream experience while I'm waiting for my alarm to go off, but I've never really thought of these as dreams as they're entirely and actively controlled by my mind.
I believe there's something called lucid dreaming where you know you're dreaming, but it's not like that - it's more like I actively think up a scenario or idea and then muck about with it. So much more like a daydream or fantasy than a dream.
Anyway, this new duvet is great - it's light enough to keep me cool, but weighty enough to fulfil my need for a duvet. My other one is a massive 13.5 togs, which I think is about the maximum. Quite where I'm going to put it, I'm not sure, but it looks like the weather is on the turn, so I don't think I'll need it for ages now.
Now that may sound daft - why not just use a blanket, or a regular sheet? Well for some reason I cannot get to sleep unless I've got a duvet on me. I've tried many times in years past to sleep without any covers or just a sheet and I cannot do it. There's obviously some psychological thing going on that means I just can't.
I'm actually pretty neurotic when it comes to sleeping - I have a whole host of... well, I suppose rituals would be the word, that are essentially there to ensure I go to sleep.
Basically, a summary of the basic ritual goes something like-
First off, I ensure all curtains are fully closed and that all lights are turned off or covered over. Now I don't just mean normal lights. You know how a lot of electrical appliance have some sort of LED that indicates they're in standby, or they have a digital clock or something that emits light? Well I can't have those shinning at me.
It's kinda like a brightness threshold - below a certain level I'm happy, but above and the light will keep me up. This can be so bad for me that I actually have to pin black bin bags to the curtains in my bed-sit, because they're white and crap at blocking out light in the summer or if my landlord leaves a light on.
I then read for at least 10 minutes. This is actually a bit of an odd one, because I know a lot of guides for people with insomnia say you shouldn't do anything stimulating, like read or watch TV before bed. But I dunno, it works for me.
What makes it really ritualistic is that I have to be laying on my side and I have to be in my nightclothes. If I'm not, then it's just ordinary reading and it doesn't help.
After reading I switch off the light and continue to lay on my side. Here, I'm consciously trying clear my mind. I try to force out anything resembling active thought and concentrate on stillness and nothing.
It's also at this stage that any noise will become apparent. Like light, I can't put up with noise while I'm trying to sleep, so if there's a party going on somewhere or my PVR is whirring away, I'll put in my earplugs.
This 'calming down' can last anywhere from 5minutes to half an hour, but once I'm relaxed, I'll turn onto my front and that's when I'll drift off.
At least, I assume I drift off. What will actually happen is the next thing I'll be aware of is waking up. This will usually take one of two forms - waking up very early, desperate for a piss, or wake up about 15 minutes before my alarm is due to go off (also needing a pee).
You'll notice there's no mention of dreaming - I can count the number of dreams I remember on one hand. I sometimes have a sort of a daydream experience while I'm waiting for my alarm to go off, but I've never really thought of these as dreams as they're entirely and actively controlled by my mind.
I believe there's something called lucid dreaming where you know you're dreaming, but it's not like that - it's more like I actively think up a scenario or idea and then muck about with it. So much more like a daydream or fantasy than a dream.
Anyway, this new duvet is great - it's light enough to keep me cool, but weighty enough to fulfil my need for a duvet. My other one is a massive 13.5 togs, which I think is about the maximum. Quite where I'm going to put it, I'm not sure, but it looks like the weather is on the turn, so I don't think I'll need it for ages now.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
poltergeist
I had the weirdest time when I was trying to get to sleep last night.
If I wasn't a rationalist I'd have probably said I was experiencing some poltergeist activity.
It started with a weird flash of light. I was laying on my front at the time and it seemed to almost explode from the wall behind me.
The next weird thing was that I could hear what sounded like wind, but not quite. Sometimes there are random gusts of wind that give a very distinct set of noises in my bedsit, and this was kinda like some of them, but not entirely.
The nest thing was another set of noises that almost sounded like someone moving about in the roof-space that connects my bedsit to the main house. We've had mice in there before and it was nothing like them. They make scratches noises and this was much more like something big moving around, but not in a floorboard-creaking sort of way.
At that point I put my earplugs in, but not more than 10 minutes after that I suddenly heard what sounded like a knocking noise.
Because my doorbell is shit, my landlord does knock on my door when he needs to talk to me. However, because this was late at night there should have been an accompanying light from under the door if it was him, but there wasn't.
The other thing I discovered was that my duvet was upside down. I'm sure you've got or have seen a duvet, and if you have then you know that at one end there's always a means of fastening the duvet cover once you've put the actual duvet inside.
In my case, my duvet covers button up and I like to keep the buttoned end down the bottom of my bed, at the foot end. Indeed, it's one of my many little idiosyncrasies / pathologies that I have to have the buttoned end at the bottom.
Weird then that I discovered the buttons at the head end. Weirder still that at no point since putting on the cover have I turned it round. Neither have I pushed it off during the night and had to pull it back off.
So what was it all about?
A poltergeist?
Paranoia and/or the random workings of a sleep-deprived and/or booze-addled mind?
A random collection of events that were actually unconnected, except for their proximity in time?
Well, clearly it was the latter combined with a bit of the second one, since ghosts don't exist.
If I wasn't a rationalist I'd have probably said I was experiencing some poltergeist activity.
It started with a weird flash of light. I was laying on my front at the time and it seemed to almost explode from the wall behind me.
The next weird thing was that I could hear what sounded like wind, but not quite. Sometimes there are random gusts of wind that give a very distinct set of noises in my bedsit, and this was kinda like some of them, but not entirely.
The nest thing was another set of noises that almost sounded like someone moving about in the roof-space that connects my bedsit to the main house. We've had mice in there before and it was nothing like them. They make scratches noises and this was much more like something big moving around, but not in a floorboard-creaking sort of way.
At that point I put my earplugs in, but not more than 10 minutes after that I suddenly heard what sounded like a knocking noise.
Because my doorbell is shit, my landlord does knock on my door when he needs to talk to me. However, because this was late at night there should have been an accompanying light from under the door if it was him, but there wasn't.
The other thing I discovered was that my duvet was upside down. I'm sure you've got or have seen a duvet, and if you have then you know that at one end there's always a means of fastening the duvet cover once you've put the actual duvet inside.
In my case, my duvet covers button up and I like to keep the buttoned end down the bottom of my bed, at the foot end. Indeed, it's one of my many little idiosyncrasies / pathologies that I have to have the buttoned end at the bottom.
Weird then that I discovered the buttons at the head end. Weirder still that at no point since putting on the cover have I turned it round. Neither have I pushed it off during the night and had to pull it back off.
So what was it all about?
A poltergeist?
Paranoia and/or the random workings of a sleep-deprived and/or booze-addled mind?
A random collection of events that were actually unconnected, except for their proximity in time?
Well, clearly it was the latter combined with a bit of the second one, since ghosts don't exist.
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