Week 1 Boredom, Week 2 INSOMNIA!

Wednesday 9th December 2009
Hmm I'm falling behind with all this stuff just now. But I have a a pretty good excuse, though not one I like. What is it? Yep, I've been ill again.

Hang on. Wasn't that the subject of the blog LAST time? Well, yes, much of it was that though not all. And maybe you mean the blog before the last one. But in any case, yes, once again in this country I have succumbed to the dreaded 'lurgy' (as we say).

Last time I wrote, I was on the verge of two weeks of holiday 'freedom' as the students were to be off for their Hajj break. And indeed they were and indeed I DID have those two weeks. But they were generally pretty awful in a couple of ways.

Week 1 was quite simply DULL and BORING! Nothing else to say really – just a totally BALL-ACHINGLY tedious seven days of my life out here. Well, you say, isn't it ALL like that? Ohhh, no no – not like THAT was. I quite simply had nothing to do. During the teaching week this is only the case in evenings and weekends. But imagine THIS scenario – no teaching, nobody else around, nowhere to go, STILL too warm to go out far. AND an internet connection that was as temperamentally off as it had ever been in the year to date. Why so? Well I was being disconnected extremely often. In Week 2 this became insane and I found that after only a logon period of 20-30 minutes, I was booted off and then I had to disconnect and reconnect my modem, restart the PC, disconnect and reconnect modem AGAIN, restart PC AGAIN and then after a THIRD time of restarting the PC the connection would be back. If I was lucky. I might well have to wait till later in the day.

The reasons for all THAT trouble are still unclear. I NEVER know if the trouble is due to my PC, my modem, the physical interruption of the signal from Mobile to my PC, the transmit/receive mast down the road malfunctioning, some other Mobile systems fault (which HAS happened before!), or just being in the WRONG TIME in the WRONG PLACE on the WRONG FUCKIN DAY. And with the WRONG WIND BLOWING!!!

What I THINK it was is something I installed which now I have taken off the computer. And that thing is called a 'firewall' program. Yes, Windows Vista DOES have its own basic firewall program which now I am back to using. But it doesn't keep out all that it should and mostly it keeps check ONLY on the programs you are running and which of THOSE need access to the internet. Does it keep out potential intruders who are out there trying to break in? I don't think it does much of that, no. However, in trying to make my system better I might have closed down access 'holes' which didn't WANT to be closed down. Well, if you've ever tried to use a firewall program before, you CAN find it pretty daunting with all the terminology it throws up and what it asks you about and what you should and shouldn't be blocking. The one I had (Agnitum Outpost) is constantly asking you questions about the programs you are running and about if you want to allow certain types of access or not. But it is FAR from being user-friendly. I am a fairly savvy computer user but I know very little about TCP or UDP or that sort of thing. That was one good thing about the BitDefender Firewall package until it got faulty and refused to start (a fault which BitDefender STILL can't fix properly and I will NOT be renewing my subscription to their services!).

So having taken off that Outpost firewall, normalcy has been restored. Well, except for the fact that, according to the Mobily boys, I used up all my 5GB of allowed upload/download allocation in under TWO WEEKS!!?? I REALLY don't think their counter can count at all, but there is little I can do about that even if I DID have my own counter. Their counter is, unfortunately, the one that decides how much you have used. And that is THAT whether they are right or wrong or whatever.

Ohh I sure HOPE I can get back to normal straightforward internet access soon! This internet connection has been a constant source of frustration for most of the year. And yet the choice of how we connect to the web is so limited and support so lacking.

So that was one thing that REALLY had me tearing out my hair during most of the first week and much of the second week too. There is NOTHING more frustrating than being denied my internet. Isolation here is bad enough, so when my only connection with the outside world is REMOVED, then it is really rather stressful. Without internet access, I would have no life at all. And THAT statement in itself is rather a sad one! Sad but all too true.

OK, enough of the sick web. Now onto sick ME! And yes indeed I really was NOT at ALL a well man. I am talking about Week 2 of the holiday now. And it was something new. Yes, AGAIN, some new affliction has come to me out here in the desert. For one thing I had quite a bad cold which started early in the week round about Sunday onwards for most of the time. A fairly standard cold I guess – the usual thing – minor coughs, LOTS of sneezing and LOADS of feeling really rather shitty.

Well, if THAT wasn't enough then there was a new thing – INSOMNIA. There are odd nights here and there where we all find we have trouble sleeping. I have had these too. However, imagine this happening to you for what was five or six nights in succession. Every night you go to bed at normal time. You DO feel tired. You do the normal bedtime things. You get into bed and lie down and close your eyes as normal. You just lie there ….. and lie there ….. and lie there …. AND LIE THERE MORE! Much time is passing here and you try lying on one side, then on the other side. These things normally work but in THIS night they do not. You quite simply do NOT FEEL TIRED and you really DO NOT WANT to fall asleep. Yes, your eyes are closed. But what you cannot do is stop your brain from working madly and things are running round inside your head. You cannot stop them, and they are mostly the most innocuous of things – in my case it was things like songs in my head not wanting to go away, thoughts of my computer football management game and what strategies I was going to try, things I had seen on the TV news like, of all things, the trial in Germany of John Demjanjuk, the alleged Nazi death camp prison guard. And probably other such minor things that SHOULD NEVER keep anyone up, and certainly NOT for half the night. And when I say “half the night”, I really DO MEAN THAT for it was always at about 2am or even 3am that I could finally get some sleep.

So what did I do? Did I just lie there? No I did not. I always DID get up in the end after such a long period of lying there. Then I would go to the fridge, get a milk drink, maybe have some bananas, go do stuff on the computer in the HOPE that actually DOING SOMETHING would bring on enough tiredness to finally put me out properly. But it never did and in the end it was only looking at the clock that drove me back into bed for Try #2 of sleep.

The procedure continued ALL that week. The cycle was basically that the morning after this non-sleep I would wake up in mid-morning but not actually GET UP till early afternoon. Having got up, I would feel truly like a man who had not slept. And you know how that feels? Feels like you have something there between your eyes and the Real World you see. Makes it look like a dream. And you can only move very slowly. And things are heavier than normal. And many tasks are much too difficult. And you are INCAPABLE of any kind of thinking or conversation because your brain quite simply is NOT with you. And then ANOTHER NIGHT approaches and you fear it will happen AGAIN which it indeed does and then the next day is as the previous day was.

WHAT A FEELING!

Question is this: not just WHY did it happen but what made it start and what triggered it all off? Why would some weeks of holiday make me an insomniac? What was I doing that was different? What was I EATING that was different?

And THIS is the thing – the answer was …. I wasn't doing much different at ALL.

I can only say this. If you ask what was the big difference these two weeks it is that I was INDOORS inside an AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM almost ALL the time. Why should that matter, you ask. Isn't that the most appropriate environment for conditions such as those I live in? Well, yes, in general it IS the ONLY way you can live out here. Without aircon, we would surely all overheat and our lives would be a complete misery in the 50-degree heat of the desert summer. I am grateful for THAT side of it. But my normal day does NOT involve me staying for SUCH LONG PERIODS in one air-conditioned place. I come and go, I move about between such places. I leave my room in the mornings and I return at lunchtimes (briefly) and then again in mid-afternoon. The classrooms too all have aircon, but again there are frequent break times and we move in and out of these places.

So am I saying that I attribute my sicknesses this week to the AIR-CONDITIONING??

I am saying EXACTLY THAT, yes.

It is a well-known fact that many people have an allergy to air-conditioning. And also that inside an aircon room, it is such an artificial environment because the air you are “forced” to breathe is NOT fresh air but AIR-CONDITIONED AIR! Your air is cooled or heated by the machine,, and the thermostat in your room determines how it is delivered to you. Well, the only thing I change on MY thermostat is the slider which I push UP for warmer and push DOWN for a cooler room. And I DO keep it on all the time day AND night. If you turn it off then you quickly notice how the temperature in your room increases AND how stale the air becomes and how breathing becomes an effort.

Another thing about airconditioning – well TWO things actually is that the air is SHARED. YES! You can often smell other people's cooking smells (which is nice!), but also you get the exhaled air of, probably, EVERYONE else in your building. And what does THAT contain? ANY NUMBER of different kinds of germs and bacteria of all kinds that you care to name. Well, doesn't the airconditioning process kill those germs? No, I really don't think it DOES at ALL!

Therefore if there are any sneezers or coughers around you or if someone else has flu or a cold and you are in your room for longer than you should be, then it is, in my opinion, MORE than likely that YOU TOO will go down in the same way!

Of course I have no scientific knowledge to back this up and many people will claim what I say to be completely fallacy. OK, you take whatever point of view you wish! But I'll tell you something – in future I'll take the cooling breeze of a nice electric FAN to cool ME down, thank you very much. You can KEEP your airconditioning!!

Speaking of aircon, I woke up last Thursday to no aircon and no electricity at all. Ohh, I thought, ANOTHER building electricity breakdown. But, on going downstairs to find out more, there was a notice on the outside that gave us info on the electrical power supply maintenance work that they were doing all over the compound. Of course, they hadn't USEFULLY informed us the previous day that they were to do this and so fridges defrosted everywhere. My fridge doesn't have much frozen stuff in it and all I lost was about half a bottle of milk that went off.

Oh, and ANOTHER first a few days before THAT. Early-ish morning it was and I was lying nicely there in my bed. Suddenly the sound of bells – alarm bells. Now, when you're lying there and you hear such a thing, you REALLY don't QUITE know what you're hearing at first ESPECIALLY when you've never heard the building's fire alarm before. First I thought it was some kind of bell in my room …. no, my phone wasn't ringing. Then I thought, ah, maybe it IS outside the room but it doesn't sound loud enough ….. better go out and check …. YES, it WAS the fire alarm! Well, I'll be damned! Sure was the QUIETEST fire alarm bell I've ever heard in my LIFE.

Nobody else seemed to be rushing out but I figured I'd better. Saw some others from my floor heading out too and we all, of course, went to the stairs and not to the lift as that is what every sound person knows you must not do. Down the stairs and out the building and …. well I couldn't help noticing the Filipino guy in fireman's uniform GET INTO THE LIFT to go up!! Ha ha HAAA!! Some fire fighter HE would turn out to be!!!

Anyway, it was all over soon as the fire bell went off and we all went back in. This was, As I recall, a few days before the power outage.

A few days AFTER the Maintenance Day had passed, there was AGAIN a Lights Out moment one night – must've been not so late. Again then the aircon was off and all lights too. But this time there was a strange quietness and stillness about the place. Well, all except for the guys who live just down the corridor who were making a lot of noise about it all. I didn't understand that – wasn't this just another maintenance thing?

Apparently not. Seems it was the WHOLE of the Eastern Province that was out of power for about half an hour that night. And the cause? Well, I'm not sure but someone said something about an explosion of some kind in a generator somewhere. Not the 'terror kind' – just the accidental kind …. probably due to …. yes you've guessed it – LACK OF MAINTENANCE!!

An Accident Waiting To Happen? Will these people never learn?