Back to work in 2004
Erratic sleeping patterns sometimes makes one consider vying for the helm of the Insomniacs Anonymous.
Where we can discuss all sorts of remedies for sleep or rather ways to occupy one's time once that horrid nightmare or physiological condition has jerked you awake for the fourth time in 3 hours of chicken coup head nodding slumber.
Having no screaming toddlers in the house, the annoying situation of sleep deprivation without external influence hardly prepares one or allows one to empathise in truth with regular parents who incessantly complain of sleepless nights brought on by restless sprogs in the teething stage of life, which lasts for 4 years and then another 14.
Self-medicated slumber
In years gone by in Africa, self-administering Valium as a soporific agent with aplomb raved only to arrive in the West and realise it was considered a social malady worthy of more therapy, sympathy and treatment as an addictive condition.
Sleep whilst it is good for restfulness and restoration has it dangers if one needs to escape from one's dreams. In a drug-induced state, one loses the motor functions to come out unscathed, suddenly sitting upright and breaking out in a sweat to rival Niagara on a wet morning.
Anyway, one was up at 03:00hrs by the captain's log and saw no more respite for the rest of the day. So, starts an early day when some outrageously rude ticket counter attendant tries to impose linguistic superiority on one as one asked for a monthly pass.
Modern Dutch
Dutch is hardly the language of oppression for this age, having given us the word apartheid; the proponents of the 'speak Dutch' campaign at times really expose their inability to speak English ignorance.
Bless their hearts, people need refuge where they are strong, but Amsterdam Centraal Station is hardly the Dutch outback, anyone employed at those counters should be multi-lingual or be sent to tend sheep in the far North.
Beginning the working day at 07:00hrs, two of the early-shifters were already at the call desk, and the chorus of Happy New Year greetings becomes the theme of the day, apart from recounting what one did over the holidays - at least the presentable and decent parts - too many unspeakable secrets in this life to shock the Puritans with.
Caffeine managed
By 10:00hrs, the results of a sleepless night were struggling to gain ascendancy over the awakening effects of caffeine. Caffeine advocacy by intravenous injection is becoming a marketable prospect.
Suppose each office had a Caffeine chair, very much like the chair of American expression - the Electric Chair - only this time one convulses to the influx of caffeine as it hits the heart and turns you into an a hyperactive misfit ready to wreak havoc on the day's duties - deal with the effects later.
Well, gladly the Pen Pushers Posse were not subjected to the caffeine chair, they were just coming out of hibernation, three questions in all with one email requesting information by accusing one of inaction.
Hey! Everyone wants an update, I have been away for two weeks and one is trying to catch-up with the dregs that should have died with the year just dead and gone.
Gladly, one was back home by 19:03 on the bus that detoured because, help me again, they are constructing something on that road that has seen more makeovers than a Dallas
The first working day of 2004, passed without much event, but I am glad it started with restraint.
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