Quintessentially Illuminated!

I'm on call for work today. Who has to work the middle weekend of their holiday, I ask you?

Unfortunately staffing levels are now so low and the fact that there are still weekend cutover commitments to take account of means that there is very little opportunity to deviate from the original management imposed schedule and so here I am in the middle weekend of my holiday...

I'm not in a happy place with regards to work just now!

This is my moodbeam, a Christmas present from my big cousin a few years back. I came across the little guy this morning when I was collecting the washing (don't ask) and thought it was an appropriate blip to express my changing mood through this current two week break. As red as my life gets at work I knew the next two weeks, just travelling and continuing my castle series would be just sooo happy (you notice I'm not getting the slightest bit red for this bit in the middle). I've said it before, but it's absolutely worth saying again. I've met some wonderful people here and I can't say how much your words of encouragement and laughter have helped Mr Moodbeam stay green since I picked up the camera again.

Thank you all so much!

Anyway, I promised a few people I'd illuminate them as to the origins of my moniker, so on this lazy blip-day I'll just do that.

First of all, you have to understand, I'm not a morning person. Never have been. Never will be. So while I have to fit into the confines of the normal day, my actual day extends beyond what normal people would consider...well, normal (as some of you have already discovered - I laugh in the face of timezones)! This means my normal sleep pattern is about 4 hours a night. This is good because it means that generally I rarely suffer from fatigue (usually as a result of extended work requirements) as my body has got used to the abuse, but when I do, I do and usually requires a "straight to bed" when I get in from work or a "lost weekend" now and again to recover. I know that this is probably not very healthy...

So, with this in mind, you can appreciate that there have been a few... erm, misfires in my daily routine from time to time. So what does exemplify Sleepyheadedness?

Well, there was the time I was awakened by the phone. Looking over at the clock, I knew who it would be. I answered without even looking at the caller id. "I've slept in", said I. "Yeah, well we were wondering if you were going to make it in today so thought we'd phone", replied the voice at the other end. I chuckled. "Well, you could have bloody phoned me earlier than half twelve to find out!". I wandered into work after lunch and apologised, saying I'd take a half day holiday for the morning.

But even that pales to insignificance with the Piece de resistance of Sleepyhead tales.

Iain (who had phoned me that fateful day), the newly courting reversepolarity and Mrs. R. along with a few other friends from work had decided to go away for a long weekend to Dublin. I warned them not to, but they insisted (obviously being the most trustworthy member of the group - which doesn't say a lot for them really) that I hold onto the receipts and tickets. So the morning of day we set off came. Back in those days I was renting a flat in Edinburgh and it didn't have any central heating. Not trusting (or willing to pay the cost for) a two bar electric fire to be kept on overnight, standard procedure was to add layers when I went to bed to stay warm... and snugly warm it kept me.

Almost to the point of hibernation it would seem!

I've mentioned before that I have multiple alarms set to make sure I get up in the morning. Well, apparently I slept though those, and a number of phone calls and for about five minutes of people buzzing the front door of the close. A fly buzzing in my ear in my dream (wonder what suggested that) finally roused me. After letting a highly amused Iain and Heather (mellow yellow that pair) in the door and hopping into the shower for a quick refresher we headed off to meet up with (the slightly more agitated) P's.

Needless to say we still made the flight in plenty of time (well five minutes before they closed the gate... a full five minutes, I'm sure of it) but it has become an immeasurable source of amusement from that time on and of course the quintessential Sleepyhead moment...

:- )

Happy Sunday, folks!