England

14 January 2011

Firstly, In England’s green & pleasant land…

FOR LEGAL PURPOSES, A DISCLAIMER: In France at the moment skiing, but I haven’t kept the blog up with what’s actually happening.

This is arriving.

I’m officially in the 1st phase of my trip, staying with my grandparents for a week in Bournemouth. The next bit is a week’s skiing in Les Arcs.

Luckily it’s not as cold as it has been. In Bournemouth it’s been about 3 to 5 degrees, which is fine by me given that the temperatures have been touching -13 just 2 weeks ago! English winter weather can be miserable with clouds and greyness, but the weather can be really nice in winter (albeit not often) if the sun’s out; it would just happen to be cold.

In the height of summer in the UK, the sun rises at 4:30am and sets at 10:30pm. I reckon 18 hours of sunlight is a really cool thing. However, you pay a price; in the height of winter (or the bottom, let’s say), the sun rises at 8:30am through the clouds, just, and sets at 4 to 4:30pm. Wonderful. It gets you up and ready nice and early, though, as you find you’re always striving to get the most out of the little sunlight there is. So, really, the weather isn’t as bad as inhibitive as I thought it would be. If it gets any colder I’ll just wear 3 pairs of socks anyway.

Jet lag

The funny thing about jet lag is that everybody knows how bad it is but I don’t ever hear much about how people combat it with any sort of medication. I’ve heard about taking melatonin, which can regulate your circadian rhythm, but apart from that, nada.

I’ve fallen asleep on the floor every single night that I’ve been in Bournemouth (7 nights I think). Jet lag sleep isn’t the same as normal sleep. You don’t dream and you never know where the hell you are when you wake up. I kept forgetting whether I had dinner or not as I’d always eat it when I was completely dead.

Coming up

I’ve got an interesting story next. I split it up from this post just because it’s after these experiences of arriving. Also, I doubt anybody can be bothered to read over a thousand words in one slog on a computer screen. What about person who had to type it all out, eh?