or: Why Am I Still Waking Up At Stupid O’Clock?
Now that the Big Exam is over, I have been able to make the transition from coconuts to mojitos – the tropical drinks of choice depending on timing, weather and what else I’ve eaten or drunk that day.
So far I have had about a billion coconuts so I have a while to go before I catch up with the mojitos.
In the meantime, I’ve been trying to catch up on some sleep and squeeze in a relaxing dive where I don’t need to learn anything in particular but will pick up something anyway because that’s just the nature of diving – there is always something.
The sleep part has been a bit of a challenge. Partly due to living on a section of the island where people walk to and from the various clubs and partly because I have fans in my room when sometimes an air conditioner would be better. It’s not HK-humid though so I can’t really complain. It’s just hot at about 30 degrees even at around midnight. I know this because my phone tells me. It’s sometimes this temperature at 3am too. And it hasn’t changed by the time it’s 4am or 5am either. Sometimes it does, but not often.
If I have fallen asleep in between these times, it’s the time when the late night party goers decide to return to their places signing Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, various pop tunes from the 80s (I’m not sure why it’s never from any other decade except this decade does have some good power ballads even for that time of the morning) or some English football chant (I would call it soccer but I’m trying to be culturally sensitive and that’s what the English seem to call the sport with the round ball and the actors falling over themselves and grabbing their ankles, standing up and then walking as though nothing happened). Their singing is surprisingly good which makes it a little disappointing that I’d rather sleep through it since that seems a waste of some free entertainment however I’ve often had study the next day.
Now though, I don’t. However, I’d like to catch up on some sleep so would still like to be able to sleep through it. The only night I have managed this is the one between Day 1 and Day 2 of our Big Exam. It was a good night to do it and helped me go into Day 2 a lot more relaxed than Day 1. That said, it’s also because I’d completed what I saw as the hardest part of the exam for me by then too – the confined water hover demonstration and noticing the mistakes my pretend Padi Babies made, correcting them and giving positive reinforcement. The hard part in this for me is just the hover itself! Lucky I had some good training.
Since I am able to have a few more mojitos than coconuts now, I was hoping that would help me sleep a little better too. Hasn’t worked yet but I’m not going to give up trying!
Even on our night out after the exam, the night where I could have been singing at stupid o’clock on the way back to where I’m staying but I didn’t since I can’t carry a tune to save my life, even when I have been drinking (it wasn’t a mojito night but more a mix of vodkas and jaegerbombs – training for the HK Rugby 7s starting soon), I set my alarm for midday as we were due for a boat trip at 1.30pm. I think I was in bed around 5.30 or 6am so it wasn’t too ambitious a goal. Except apparently it was. I was awake at 9.30am and ready to start the day. It wasn’t even that hot at that stage so who knows what woke me up. My room was nice and dark too.
The next part of our training starts at 9.30am this morning, this is a bit later than our last course so it’s kind of a sleep in. Let’s see how I go for the next week or so…
A few more mojitos….
And coconuts….
And perhaps a siesta or two or three.
* Thanks to Greenday for the title to this post.