My daughter posted this picture on my Facebook page yesterday. Despite the fact that she lives on the other side of the world, it shows very clearly how well she knows me.
I have always been a good sleeper. In my teenage days I could sleep anywhere and I did. There were several occasions where I fell asleep on very short bus journeys, head against the window, and nearly missed my stop (only the fact that I was travelling with others prevented this from happening).
The arrival of my family changed the sleeping pattern (as it always does) but I became adept at doing what had to be done to get the babies back to sleep again and following them immediately into the Land of Nod. So, overall, my sleep has been deep and refreshing.
All of that changed once I had my big road accident in 2010. After leaving hospital I needed medication to get me to sleep and to keep me that way. That situation lasted far longer than what I wanted it to, but, once I got over that, I found that my old sleep habits did not return. The reasons for this have never been clear but I am happy to say that, even though my sleep pattern is now a much more interrupted one than it used to be, I do get enough sleep to feel refreshed in the morning.
I need to clarify that I have now been writing this blog for over 7 years. I am not, as you know, a journalist but a teacher and I have had no formal journalistic training. At school I HATED writing, partly because of my dreadfully poor handwriting but mainly because my mind kept racing ahead of my hand and the frustration of not being able to say what I wanted to say was considerable. Since commencing this exercise I have been called upon (self-imposed) to write regularly and I try to compose and publish some fresh, original content at least every couple of days. This is my choice. As well as this, for nearly 18 months now I have also had a more formal writing assignment, a regular weekly column in Australia’s leading online motorcycle journal. This is required to be written and submitted to my editor by COB each Friday.
So the pressure to not only write, but compose articles that are fresh, readable and appealing, has increased considerably. And, most of the time, I get this done during the day.
EXCEPT when, like tonight, I wake in the middle of the night with an idea in my mind of something about which I want to write. This is a comparatively recent development but is becoming a regular one. This phenomenon is not unusual for writers and the solution is supposedly simple. “Keep a note book on your bedside table and, when an idea strikes you, write it down so that you don’t forget it.” You are then supposed to go back to sleep and sort it out in the morning. Logical, and I tried it. It doesn’t work. The notebook idea does work when I am AWAKE and I use it regularly but it doesn’t work in the still of the night. And I know WHY it doesn’t work, too.
Once an idea forms, jotting down the SUBJECT or the concept for the article doesn’t work because my mind, now active, starts to WRITE it. It continues to build itself until I give up. I figure, what’s the point of being unable to get back to sleep because my mind is so active? I may as well just get up, write the darn thing and then go back to bed having cleared my mind.
I should add that the wee, small hours of the morning is a good time to write. It is quiet, there are no distractions and (except my cats of which more later) and my thought processes seem clearer.
So, It is 0159 and I am writing this. I went to sleep hours and hours ago and fell asleep immediately. But something woke me (in this instance its is some inconsiderate clods having a loud conversation in the car park just outside my window.) And, in the couple of minutes after waking TWO ideas came to me at once, one that I am writing right now, and the other, the germ of an article for Friday.
Now Friday I am going to be BUSY. I will, in fact, be in San Francisco, catching up with a collection of bike racing crazies, some of whom I know from their visits to Phillip Island and some who I have never met but who I count as my friends through our contacts on social media. So clearing the decks before then IS a good plan.
At home I run the gauntlet of my two cats who, if I stay up writing past about 0500, think they can get an early start on their usual breakfast time and start to pester me. I am lucky that my wife is a deep sleeper as well because I can usually slip out and complete the writing assignment without compromising her sleep in the process. Needless to say I close the bedroom door to prevent the furry ones from doing the above job instead.
Yesterday was another thoroughly enjoyable day here in San Diego. Hotter that usual but tempered by a gentle breeze, we spent quite a few hours at the pool in the apartment complex here, meeting up with some of my daughter and son-in-law’s friends, swimming, barbecuing and generally being silly. It’s always good to be reminded that, even though we live in different countries, in the end, people are pretty much the same. Treat them nice and they will reciprocate.
The loudmouths in the car park downstairs have just got in theirs cars and left so I will call it a night (morning) as well. Today is the US Grand Prix from Indianapolis and I plan to commandeer the TV and watch all three races, something which I am unable to do at home. Go, MM93.
Good night (morning)