As we face the British winter I've become conscious of something that I battle against every year. It's the battle of the nights drawing in and the mornings drawing out.
I'm a fellow who likes a good lie in, but I wake up at about 6 AM normally, am at my desk at about 7 AM and am usually in the office until about 6 PM. It's stuff I choose to do so I'm not seeking sympathy or anything.
The thing is that I can do it very easily when the weather is nice, when I leave home in sunshine and get back in the sunshine. I can even do it comfortably when the weather's not nice but it's still daylight. What I struggle with though is the dark.
Getting out of bed when it's dark, driving to work in the dark and sitting at my desk being vaguely aware that there is a day going on out there. Finishing work and driving home in the dark and spending the rest of my awakeness in darkness is hard work. When the clocks go back it just gets worse and dusk shows up sometime shortly after lunch.
I find myself yearning for Colombo, for its warmth and smell, for its taste and adventure. For the sense of excitement and sexiness that it stirs. I long for its sound and its huskiness, for the long nights and the longer days.
Its nice and reassuring to have the thoughts and images, the memories and the sensations to pull out whenever I want. It makes me glow to think that I've got access through so many methods.
With mobiles, the net, email and cheap flights the world is definitely a smaller place that it used to be.
It makes my life better and I like it, but I'm not sure if that makes the world a better place.
Sri Lanka’s Ingenuity paradox
4 weeks ago
8 comments:
I was going to write about the cold weather myself...it's getting chilly here as well.I wish I could be back home or atleast in SL...envy the people living there.
I'm having such issues motivating myself to get out of bed each morning. I peek out of the window and everything is just gloomy and grey and unsunny, (like really, I haven't seen any sun since a few hours on Saturday), it just makes me want to curl back up in bed :(
Well smell, taste and adventure you'll find RD, but I dunno about the warmth. Monsoon season just started and it rains all day, every other day in Colombo right now.
The rains not bad though. Its a good rain. Not the freezing cold type, at least from where I'm at. Kinda like it. :)
Its going to be one of those bitter Colombo autumn days - the mercury not budging above a bone chilling 30C ;)
But seriously it is quite gloomy though the clouds and anyone with a small chariot that will have to swim the puddles are holding their breath. Wet squirrels are commuting grumpily, bowler hats firmly on their heads. The stray dogs sit on their Harleys pretending they don't give a damn (they do).
The Met department's very 1990s looking website has the big picture. May be it won't rain but that doesn't mean the traffic will be less dramatic.
Perhaps I should stop typing now and get back to work.....
Hey RD - simple solution would be to spend part of the Winter here with us guys. Easy (like Sunday morning)!
I love it when it starts to get dark, though only in contrast to the really long days of summer. In SL I really missed long summer days. Out in the sticks I knew that once the monks started to chant that was it...I was in for the night.
Ya!!! the cold is now really setting in engulfed by the gloom outside!!! miss SL like hell now!! so wish that once irritating heat would be back instead of this once looked forward to cold :)
walking around darkness really doesn't help...I hate it when it gets dark at 3...but annoyingly enough around May, I'd be up at 5am cause the damn sun would be shining on my face...
on a more random note, I reopened hotchocolate and started blogging again..you are a fan, you should know :)
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