London Trips with No Sleep |
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The date is the Second of August, 2007; my alarm clock reads 05:00 meaning that I still have not fallen asleep in the five hours I have been lying here. I have a lot on my mind at the moment but it has been twenty-one hours since I last slept and I am getting kind of worried about that now. Great, now thinking about my lack of sleep is stopping me from going to sleep, that’s it I am getting up! I am meant to be leaving for London in five hours time but at the rate time is dragging on it feels like it could be a year away. Coffee will be a good start I think as I go downstairs and heap in two teaspoons of instant brown stuff, I think it is coffee, into a cup. I read the newspapers from the last three days and drink my coffee before heading back upstairs for a lie down. 06:00 and the coffee has my heart racing, the humidity has me in a light sweat and it is now light outside. My dogs stir as my step-dad gets up to go to work. 'Screw this' I think as I jump out of bed and take a long, hot shower and turn on my computer. Ten minutes later when my XP decides it is not dead, I go onto the web and look in on old faithful. I, of course, talk of Runevillage.com, my home on the internet and it looks like there have been a few posts since I went to sleep. I go through the Villager forum, general chat, general pictures and my other usual posting grounds. 'Darn this lack of quick reply which forces me to go through the full process.' I think to myself. Oh well, Runevillage takes up a good hour of my time and it is now 08:00, time to pack (I always pack two hours before I leave). Two days away so I will only need a small travel bag, and it is sunny outside so three t-shirts, a pair of shorts, underwear and a toothbrush will do. Time to go to London methinks, it has been twenty-six hours since I slept and I am being kept alive by coffee and pro-plus caffeine pills. I miss the first bus by less than thirty seconds and the bus driver laughed as he drove off, I curse quite loudly but nobody is around to hear me. Twenty-five minutes I spend waiting for the next bus listening to Protest The Hero at full volume on my IPod, much to the annoyance of the old lady who as joined me at the bus stop. As I get onto the bus I see a group of five youths which I can only classify as ‘Chavs,’ for those of you who don’t know what that is, imagine someone wearing a cheap tracksuit and a heavy brass chain which he swears is gold, listening to hip hop on his stolen IPod whilst having a crafty cigarette on the top floor of the bus. I turn Protest down a little so I can hear their conversation and make sure they have no plans to kill me. Lucky me, it turns out that today they already have a target for a random beating in a public place, lovely bunch they are not. Twenty-seven hours since I slept. As I leave the bus and enter the train station I look up to the timings board, the next train to London is in five minutes time, one woman stands in the queue before me so my chances of making the train are very good. Apparently not as this woman would like a ticket that goes from my home town to Southampton today and then another ticket which goes from Plymouth to Reading for five days time. The man sat in the ticket office looks very confused and has to call someone else. The train station vibrates with the bumps you can only associate with trains. Great, that is so fair, one bus and one train missed and I'm going to be an hour late for my so called ‘get away from it all,’ trip to London. When I finally reach the front of the queue I ask for a London Travel card and a single ticket from Zone 2 London to home for the following day. £48.75, I think he has over calculated quite a lot, I protest and he tells me to ‘deal with it.’ I turn to the next ticket booth and ask if he can help me. I am impatient from a lack of sleep and just want to get to London to see my friends and get a little bit of sleep. Right then the ticket crisis is sorted by a friendly old ticket booth operator. I move over to the train timetable again, my train is at 12.03 so I have a good fifteen minutes to get a cup of tea and a paper. Well the paper was nice and simple, but the tea was kindly thrown at me and spilled all over my trainers! My urge to kill is rising. Twenty-eight hours of no sleep, but it's ok I am starting to feel the tea kick in, my foot must have soaked in the caffeine (ha-ha). Shock horror! I actually make it onto this train and get a six-seated area to myself, a very pretty girl sat opposite to me on my left. Unfortunately for me she gets off two stops down the line, but her smile has melted away some of my rage and I'm looking forward to making it to my friend's house. I get off the Train at London Waterloo, a huge train station with people running around like headless chickens, but I am used to it having been to London on many occasions, I just jump on the escalator down to the tube station. London Bridge is one stop down and then I get the mainline to East Croydon (Dr Henry lives here somewhere). I'm not visiting our resident Doctor today though, I am on my way to my friend Pip’s house. By the time I get there it is 14:00 so we (the five of us) all go out for lunch. The rest of the day takes us shopping and me breaking the bank. On our travels we decide to stop in at Top-Shop, a huge clothing shop in London. Whilst up in the men’s section we spot a celebrity called Richard Fleischman, much to the delight of my female friends. I am still quite coherent at the moment even though it has now been thirty-six hours since I slept. Too cut a long and slightly boring evening short I will jump ahead to midnight, I am still awake my best friend and I have (stupidly) agreed to stay awake until we have completed James Bond, Goldeneye on 00 Agent setting. The first half of the game is easy enough as we tackle double agents, helicopter explosions and Soviet military bases with ease, but then we start failing levels. Fourty-one hours of no sleep + hard game = extreme anger as I turn off the games console at the wall and say "I'm going to sleep." My friend just laughs and says, "where?" He has a point; both beds are taken, as is the floor and the armchair. Looks like I am going to have to try to fall asleep sitting upright in a dining chair. "****!" I exclaim as every time my head drops to fall asleep I in turn fall off the chair and hit the cold, wooden floor. In the end I stay on that small patch of floor and try to get as much sleep as possible. I am woken at 8am by the sounds of squealing girls who are excited because it is sunny and they have summer clothes to wear; they wonder why I don’t join them in their excitement. fourty-eight hours – three hours sleep = still way too tired but I still get up, try to do a sudoku (phails) and get my stuff together to get ready for the day. Can someone explain to me why it takes girls three hours to put on a pair of shorts, a top and do their face? We don’t get out until twelve, but since we are leaving at five I leave my bag by the front door, grab my wallet and get out. My tiredness is now getting to me and I am acting in a way I never have before. I approach a group of youths and barge through them. When they turn to ask what I'm doing I just keep on walking, ignoring them (usually I would turn and say something). Next I fall asleep in my lunch and then again at the Science museum. I see that the time is 4:30pm and I have two hours to get home, but my friends all want to go to Camden. I tell them in a nice matter of words where they can go instead (remember I'm tired, they have forgiven me) and return to the flat to grab my stuff. When I finally get to Waterloo it is 17.55, my train leaves ten minutes later without me on it. Reason why? I was pulled out of the crowds for a ‘random test screening,’ I may have bags under my eyes and a zombie like walk but I don’t look like a terrorist! |
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Written By: richboi0 Edited By: dr henry Coded By: Donut Juice |