Spiral Scarecase.

Sleep Update: Signs of improvement.

I haven't posted for a whole week... that is just not acceptable.

I went to the doctors last Tuesday and he prescribed me some Temazapam to help me sleep. I tried it that very night and didn't sleep. hrmm... so I went back home on the Wednesday to see if being at home helped. On the Thursday I had to get up pretty early to go on a daytrip to London with the folks and my sister who hadn't been there before. It was pretty good; The weather was stupidly hot for October but obviously made for a nice day walking about. First stop after a looong tube trip was Buckingham Palace where I think, aside from the Queen, we were the only British people there. I also must have walked into about a million photographs too. Next, we walked up passed Big Ben to get to the South Bank, stopping to watch some fancy dressed Horse Guards on the way. We caught a river bus up to Grenwich where we saw the Cutty Sark and had Bangers and Mash in a tiny non-smokers room of this old pub. After replenishing ourselves with such fine cuisine, we trundled off to The Royal Observatory and somehow managed to gatecrash a University Graduation along the way.

We did the obligatory thing of standing over the Grenwich Line which I must say was a bit of a dissapointment- it really is just a metal line, though watching all the foreign people go mad over it was funny. The actual observatory was ever so slightly boring to me too, full of wierd gadgets and things that I couldn't really understand me being an ex art student and all. I loved the big telescope though in the observatory dome, but almost died trying to get back down the stairway to hell on the way out. I had clocked the sign on the spiral staircase up to the telescope, that read: There is NO return via this staircase. Though it SHOULD have read: There is NO return via this staircase because we ask you to return to solid ground via the Spiral Staircase of Doom on the otherside.

Holy. Crap. I was caught... my sister was in front of me... I had a group of Germans behind me... and the only way out was down the flimsiest looking stairwell I have ever seen. I swear I could have cried... It had HOLES... Great Big Bastard holes so you could see the three flights of stairs to solid ground... I needed time to deal with it but I had none. I gripped on to the main pole bit of the spiral and the bannister which was about as reassuring as holding a pencil while your plummeting to your death... and slowly and not in the least but steadily walked down the stairs, if you can call them that. The urge to just freeze was immense... but I kept going. The worst part being that I couldn't NOT look down! After what seemed like an hour I reached the floor.

I must have been feeling really British because the first thing I did after that was put a suggestion for more signage about the Death-Stairs in the observatory Comments Box.

Soo.. after that, we caught the Boat back to Westminster Pier and walked to Covent Garden for a look see, though I totally think we got lost though my Dad insisted he knew where he was going because " HE HAD A MAP!". Still, after that we caught the tube back to hillingdon, where we'd parked to avoid traffic. I was shattered, we all were but I tried to stay awake on the way back by watching The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in the car on the way back. I was BOUND to sleep that night ... but I took a sleeping pill anyway, and it worked.

So that was that. Right now, I'm back in Notty and waiting for Creature Comforts to come on TV. Other than London, things have been feeling.. bluegrh of late so hopefully this week will be much more productive.

Fingers Crossed.