Another day, another dollar

Claire awoke with a start after what seemed like only minutes of sleep. She looked around the room which was barely lit by a shaft of grey winter light filtering through a chink in the heavy curtains. Outside the rain battered the window and the wind howled mercilessly, slamming a nearby door against a wall - the cause of last night's insomnia. Where...? Ah yes, the hotel. Still in Sheffield then.

She reached out and silenced the alarm that had woken her, and rubbed her gritty eyes that felt as though they had been filled with hot sand. Time to get up? Maybe just five more minutes of rest. Last night's late dinner still lying heavily in the pit of her stomach, she lay back against the once-luxurious but now almost threadbare sheets and closed her tired eyes, praying for sleep to swallow her whole and deliver her into a blissful slumber that would last for days. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this tired.

The alarm started screeching again, signalling the end of the five-minute snooze period. With an exasperated sigh, she silenced the alarm again and flicked the switch on the wall by the bed, flooding the room with harsh, unnatural light. A searing pain filled her head, as though someone had just rammed a picaxe through her eyeballs. "I hate mornings," she thought to herself as she threw back the covers and shuffled out of bed with all the grace of a lame donkey.

The shower ran cold for approximately seven minutes. Just as she had given up, about to resign herself to a day of smelling like last night's cigarette smoke, the water began to gain a little warmth - not enough to be theraputic but enough to make standing underneath it for ten minutes bearable. As she half-heartedly rubbed shampoo into her hair, she pondered what today's training session would bring. The eighteen students has so far been significantly more unresponsive than expected.

She rinsed the shampoo from her hair, and added a generous dollop of conditioner, massaging it in as she contemplated. Was it because of language difficulties? Cultural differences? There were only about four native English speakers in the group. Maybe they didn't understand Jamie's lectures? Maybe they'd be more communicative on this second day of the course, now that they knew what to expect. She hoped so. The long drawn out silence after that dreaded query - "Any questions?" - was beginning to grate on her nerves.

Whatever happened, she hoped today would go a little faster than yesterday, which had seemed to drag on for three years. She rinsed the conditioner from her hair, and switched off the stream of lukewarm water. She towelled off, dressed, fixed her hair and makeup and made a final check in the mirror. "Another day, another dollar," she told her reflection, as she picked up her umbrella.. "Maybe I'll suggest a warmer climate for next year's course."

---

So, yes, I'm still in Sheffield. And, yes, that is an accurate reflection of my experience of waking up in hell this morning, after approximately two hours' sleep. It's not so much that I'm in Sheffield that's making me slightly less than enthusiastic. Rather, it's that I'm in Sheffield in a sort of crummy hotel, with horrible, rainy, windy, cold weather outside, attending and helping out with a course that, whilst interesting, is a lot of hard work - back to back lectures from 9am 'till 5pm - and then drawn-out dinners that go on well into the night, leaving me exhausted yet unable to sleep as my body attempts to digest.

*whinge whinge whinge*

I know, I know. It could be a lot worse. I could be working in a coal mine, hundreds of feet below ground, relying on a canary to tell me when to get the fuck out because I'm about to suffocate. I could be working in a paddy field, spending day after day with damp feet, bent over as I harvest rice and get paid a pittance for the privilage of doing so.

Goddamnit, I could be an accountant!

It's not so bad. At least me and the new girl are getting to spend some time together - she's cool. We also have a lady visiting us from Brazil who is super fantastic and very witty.

And, best of all, there's only one and a half days to go...

However, watching this continuously does make it more bearable!