Hah. In an unprecedented flurry of activity designed to catch out my loyal reader, I have somehow managed to prod my lethargic imagination into producing this - my second blog in as many days!
Basically I left it so long since the last one that I have much I need to tell you. Well, I don't really
I still can't bring myself to explain the whole Council/job farrago, but there is one aspect of my new job that I feel able to talk about without white knuckles and red mist coming into play. In fact I quite like it. Sleep deprivation.
Well, it's not really deprivation as such, more like sleep juggling. My new job requires me to work night shifts. The interesting part is that I also have to work day shifts, and a late shift somewhere in between. And all of these shifts occur within the space of a week. I usually start at 7am for a couple of days, then the next two days begin at 1pm, then the final two days start at 11pm until 7am.
The weird thing is that I really enjoy the weirdness of it all. There's something quite exciting about starting work late at night, then coming home first thing in the morning. I might say it is the pleasure of driving past all the traffic going the other way knowing that they still have a whole day's work ahead of them while I have a good day in bed to look forward to. I might say that, but it's not true. More often than not I have a day of noisy childcare and domestic chores in my sights. Yes, I usually am utterly knackered by the time I get home, but there is a peculiar type of energy buzz that you seem to get from driving home as the sun rises. The body gets confused, so decides that it had better do something. Fast. The whole morning ritual of getting the kids dressed fed and ready to go just goes by in a blur, then the housework gets more attention than ever before and before I know it, the morning is over. Then the fun really starts. I sit down. And suddenly all the sleep that I have been storing up somewhere, God knows where, is released and floods into my brain, and I simply have to give in. And this is the best bit, when I get to go to bed. Not because I think I'd better, like when normal people look at the clock of an evening and think, 'is that the time? better be off to bed' - there is no 'better be off' about this sleep, this is 'hope I make it to the bedroom first' type sleep. In fact on a few occasions I haven't made it, and have been found prostrate in the hall, one desperate outstretched hand reaching in vain towards the bedroom door, looking like a petrified Pompeiian victim of the inescapable pyroclastic flow of sleep. Total shutdown sleep. This is not little red light still on, standby sleep. This is pure envirofriendly off at the wall plug pulled out sleep. Lovely. Seriously, you should try it. They say you don't miss your water til your well runs dry. And you really only appreciate a good sleep when you've forgotten what sleep is. It's great. Everyone should work bizarre shifts. The world would be a happier place.
