Sleepless in Shadwell

As I type I hope my coffee starts to kick in soon. Maybe I should have seasoned it with sugar this one time ... I definitely need the boost this morning.  

So what do you get when you have two people, perpetually on disparate body clocks, who are new to the country and are trying to occupy and complete all normal routines as much as possible in one 3m x 5x room?  And what if these two people have very different capacities to hear and make noise?  Or have different responses to bright lights or organisation?  What if between the hours of 10pm and 9am these two people can't escape the other's habits because besides hiding out in the toilet there is no where else to go?  While we're at it, let's just throw in a large, unexpected bill courtesy of the Australian Electoral Commission at the same time, purely for the scientific experiment of seeing what will happen next.

You get crankiness, that's what. 

And lack of very much needed sleep because your brain won't cooperate and give you peace for a few hours.

Fortunately, today we only have two things we must accomplish and everything else can take a number and get in line.  Mat is already knocking over the first task and is at a meeting at the HSBC bank to set up an account.  At least, I really hope they let him set up an account and he doesn't come back empty handed and hard hearted.  Neither of us knows what kind of documents they require first.  Maybe Mat has enough evidence to prove he's not from Atlantis or maybe not.  The second task is getting to our next Airbnb accommodation in Highgate, which is two trains and a bus ride away in North London (zone 3).  It's hard to imagine nicer people than Pauline and Steven and Shadwell is so easy to navigate to/from.  I will miss them.

By the way, for any of you foodie, Jamie Oliver fans, I walked past his restaurant Barbecoa yesterday.  It's near St Paul's cathedral.  It was the morning so not open, but didn't look very big.  Nor was Jamie out the front sweeping the step with a corn broom either, which would have made for a better photo.  

Before I sign off, this is a public service announcement to our Australian citizen friends: if you haven't voted in the last few years, you might just get a surprise in the mail one day soon.  In the last state election (yes, the one in March 2012), Mat didn't vote and has been fined $167. Neither of us voted in the council elections because, quite frankly, who cares, but according to the AEC we can be fined for that too.  So we could be facing $400+ in fines.  Lovely.  I feel more endeared toward our Premier every day.  Given that I work for the state, I feel like telling the AEC to take Mat's fine out of my stationery supplies.  I prefer buying my own anyway, thank you very much.

See?  Crankiness.  It's why I've started to ask God to change me instead of everything and everyone around me.  I do not want to worship my own misery.

Keep the peace,
M