I never used to suffer insomnia and it's something that really annoys me. Particularly because I can sometimes sleep the clock round so it makes no sense that on other occasions I can't sleep at all.
One of my problems is that I get restless leg syndrome all over my body so enter into a prolonged fidget. I had the bright idea at 3 am to have a shower and it worked marvellously on the all-encompassing Restless Leg Syndrome, but didn't put me to sleep. But at least I was able to lie peacefully in bed daydreaming in a restful way.
Summer nights beg the window to be open. As dawn approaches, it is a bit of a toss-up between open window and lying under the lightweight duvet or shutting the window and spurning bedclothes. The latter is stuffy, the former is noisy. It's unbelievable how much noise there is at that time of day. Vehicular traffic never stops. Never ever stops, utterly unrelenting. If it's the gentle hum of performance engine noise I can live with that, but even at three o'clock in the morning there seems to be a need to sound horns, and rev engines in poorly executed acceleration. Then there's always the tosser who thinks it makes him more manly if he removes the silencer from his motorbike. There was a vehicle that sounded like it might be a street cleaner. Aeroplanes were coming into land, I could hear the under-carriages being lowered.
From time to time the generator starts up and tuns for a couple of minutes. This generator is, I think, the only source of electricity for the hideous block of flats built at 30 Streatham Place (the ones that are already falling down...). Its weird because there is actually a new electricity sub-station right outside my door, but still the generator chugs away every hour or so, echoing round the neighbourhood.
At one stage I heard a whistle. It sounded exactly like the police whistles that sound at the junction near work when a VVIP convoy is imminent (Jimmy does not believe me that the police use whistles for the conveying of extremely senior ministers, Royalty and visiting Foreign Heads of State/Government) so for a moment I indulged a thought that someone VVIP was approaching the Brixton Hill/South Circular junction in the dead of night (perhaps after COBRA??).
At half four was the sound of voices. I thought that was a splendid idea. If you are going to have a domestic, why not have it in the street at 4.30 am on a Sunday morning, especially on the first weekend of the year which has necessitated windows being open. All the insomniacs will hear you, and if you're very lucky you might wake up some folks who had previously been sleeping! The sound of Domestic was silenced by sirens rushing along Brixton Hill.
I decided that I was developing a stye; interestingly, the last time I got one was during the last foot-and-mouth crisis. But it seems to have subsided now. Perhaps the foot-and-mouth is a localised problem.
Still, there was no sound of Tescos delivery. That's nice. They generally deliver at about 5.30 am. The vehicles reverse and a loud amplified voice shatters the peace with an announcement "This vehicle is reversing, stand back this vehicle is reversing" and then they start throwing metal things around and shouting to each other. Funny, I thought that one of the reassurances at the Planning Application Stage was that there would be no deliveries out of hours... Lying greedy bastards.
Eventually I got to sleep and slept until 1 pm. Bugger. That'll do marvels for my sleep pattern this week...
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