There are certain things, that you take for granted...
Like sleeping through the night...
Not last night, however... last night I was visited not by insomnia, not by too much liquid too late in the day, oh no... by random and unexpected intrusions...
I went to bed at 11 - I know, 11 on a Friday night? But I am on holidays shortly and trying to stock up my sleep for the long flight to South Africa...
So, phone set to silent, room in darkness, sleep landed with a gentle thump on the pillow... Until 1:55am... When the doorbell went...
Now, a doorbell at night, is a challenging thing...
In the day, it can only mean three things
1) Aha, Friends or relatives have called to see me, Hurrah
2) Some old fashioned door to door charity collector or salesperson has an offer they wish to entice me with...
3) The postman has a package of such magnificent largesse that he must hand it to me personally...
Now, almost none of those apply at 2am...
So, logically, it is either someone I'm not expecting, but in a crisis... or it's drunken random people walking the street and having the most amsuing of adventures by pressing random doorbells...
Not exactly cutting edge logical proceses I admit, but when you have to go through them, with a mind fogged by sleep in total darkness, it takes a while... Of course a ringing doorbell is a limited time offer anyway... Because people don't wait... They go - and you never find out who it was...
Anyway, left doorbell to its own devices and returned to sleep...
To be woken an hour later - at 3am...
Not this time by the dooorbell, but by the rather more urgent harbinger of doom - the house phone!
Gasp...
Yes, the conventional landline... rarely used, but maintained principally for the broadband connection it enables...
The thing is, very, very few people have that number...
So, I'm thinking, disaster, family in trouble, death, famine, pestilence...
And scrambling out of bed, still in the dark, up the stairs to answer the phone...
And is it an emergency?
No.
It's a drunken friend who was annoyed that I wouldn't answer my mobile at 3am (it was set to silent)... She wouldn't let it go - and so rang the home number...
Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a drunken someone at 3am when the main things you're thinking are
1) Grr...
2) Yawn
3) Eejit
It kind of ruins the conversational dynamic...
-----------------------------------
Anyway, here's a picture... for Clarabelle, it's Howth, although it looks far more exotic...
Like sleeping through the night...
Not last night, however... last night I was visited not by insomnia, not by too much liquid too late in the day, oh no... by random and unexpected intrusions...
I went to bed at 11 - I know, 11 on a Friday night? But I am on holidays shortly and trying to stock up my sleep for the long flight to South Africa...
So, phone set to silent, room in darkness, sleep landed with a gentle thump on the pillow... Until 1:55am... When the doorbell went...
Now, a doorbell at night, is a challenging thing...
In the day, it can only mean three things
1) Aha, Friends or relatives have called to see me, Hurrah
2) Some old fashioned door to door charity collector or salesperson has an offer they wish to entice me with...
3) The postman has a package of such magnificent largesse that he must hand it to me personally...
Now, almost none of those apply at 2am...
So, logically, it is either someone I'm not expecting, but in a crisis... or it's drunken random people walking the street and having the most amsuing of adventures by pressing random doorbells...
Not exactly cutting edge logical proceses I admit, but when you have to go through them, with a mind fogged by sleep in total darkness, it takes a while... Of course a ringing doorbell is a limited time offer anyway... Because people don't wait... They go - and you never find out who it was...
Anyway, left doorbell to its own devices and returned to sleep...
To be woken an hour later - at 3am...
Not this time by the dooorbell, but by the rather more urgent harbinger of doom - the house phone!
Gasp...
Yes, the conventional landline... rarely used, but maintained principally for the broadband connection it enables...
The thing is, very, very few people have that number...
So, I'm thinking, disaster, family in trouble, death, famine, pestilence...
And scrambling out of bed, still in the dark, up the stairs to answer the phone...
And is it an emergency?
No.
It's a drunken friend who was annoyed that I wouldn't answer my mobile at 3am (it was set to silent)... She wouldn't let it go - and so rang the home number...
Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a drunken someone at 3am when the main things you're thinking are
1) Grr...
2) Yawn
3) Eejit
It kind of ruins the conversational dynamic...
-----------------------------------
Anyway, here's a picture... for Clarabelle, it's Howth, although it looks far more exotic...
posted by Conformist No. 1 @ 10:53 a.m.
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