Thursday, June 17, 2010

Not too tired to tell you...

I SLEPT FOR NEARLY FOUR HOURS, from late morning into early afternoon slumped in a chair at the back of the public library today. What the staff thought of me, I've no idea. But I wasn't drugged or drunk, so who cares what they thought. I was exhausted.
I slept most of yesterday through. And the day before.
I had an appointment at the druggieservice which I dragged myself down for. My worker, who is a mental health nurse, noticed the change in me at once. All I could think was: how am I to fill half a gaping hour of blank blank time?
The Personality Disorders Specialist has offered me an appointment for assessment. Being as I do not consider myself personality-disordered, especially on "axis C" as Nursey was suggesting (the anxious-avoidant-dependent axis ~ full of snivelling, simpering shy types, burdened by terror of social situations and irrational worries. This is not me.) I thought I would go 1 for a laugh and 2 because I am desperate and it's an untrodden avenue.
If I did have some such disorder, I actually have more in common with type A, the schizotypal personality, with their off-the-wall view of things coupled with a linguistic jamboree of trotterdonkey self-coined phrases, pinging like the tiny tits on the trees when they spot tubby roborovski hamsters scurrying near their nests (ahem...)
Yeah so anyway... I've got schizophrenia, not.
The other personality disorder I could be shoved towards would be the borderline type. Two of my friends had this condition. I say had because one threw himself under a tube train and is now dead... I don't really think I'm borderline at all.
The nurse did admit there's "definitely a mood thing going on". I didn't tell her my "not sleeping" had basically involved not bothering to go to bed for days on end, feeling pretty wonderful ~ I had an amazing perspective on life. I was refreshed as a granny smith apple is refreshing to a desert explorer's palate. I didn't want Nursey to assume I might have been "hypomanic", which it is my position that I am not. I am just prone to mood swings that occasionally sweep up high only to plummet me down. And I felt so so down yesterday. People kept asking what was wrong. Today I am avoiding human company and have had excessive hours of sleep so I feel sour on my own. But as you can see I'm chatty enough with my important friends... ha-har!
Now, you English speakers, let me probe you with a question: is all this German getting too annoying and should I post it in another blog?
I haven't the energy to post exhaustively in German every single day. On the other hand, I do need to practise my language otherwise it'll become as rusty as it was during the 20-year "hiatus" from study. You wouldn't believe the amount of courage it took to rustle up, having said I would like to do a BA degree in translation into and out of German, with French and Dutch on top ~ then to show how flabby my German had actually become it's humiliating. And if it does look impressive, trust me that is the lure of the exotic. If you only can sees how many I much not good grammar make, trust I would you know excellently how much very I not good can do it. See?
Now I've got to go. One last PS on the birds: I've yet to mention the SPARROWS who have returned in chirrupsome profusion to my neighbour's bush. There seem to be about twenty of them cheeping endlessly away to some more sparrows across the road (perhaps they are deadly sparrow rivals, having a rapper-style showdown about whose porch roof is theirs~?!) Sparrows had been largely absent from our towns for nearly twenty years. Sparrows and pigeons it always used to be. Pecking about in vast numbers in our parks and squares. The BBC shot an excellent documentary: The Sparrows of St James's (the park behind Downing Street and Parliament). Then they disappeared!
O and one last PS regarding my leaving the country. I know Britain has looked after me very patiently for too many years, but Britain is tinged with bad memories now I expended such a lot of time and effort trying to learn German and French and yet I've spent not spent even a month in a pays francophone and I've yet even to set foot on German-speaking soil! (German-speaking soil, die kleine Wurmchen sagen "Guten Tag!" und "Auf wiedersehen!"!) So you see, having been trapped here with an addiction for far too long, the very first thing I wish to do, if I ever CAN break free ~ is to flee!


If you want to see some good birdie-videos have a look at my tiny tits, the cutest of all British birds, posted earlier today in German (English translation below)... and these:

BTW, the quotation, by the Swiss writer Alfred Polgar, across those other tiny tits says: "I command the German language, but she doesn't always obey..."

VIDEO 1
HERE'S some chirpybirds, rather than songbirs: SPARROWS!



VIDEO 2
ON WITH THE SONGBIRDS THEME ~ HUMAN SONGBIRDS...

... this Jewish girl, I think, has one of the best voices ever recorded.
I mean, can you think of anybody at all whose vocal timbre sounds "like Barbra Streisand"..?
This performance of Evergreen from the 1976 remake of A Star is Born (Chris Kristofferson adding minimal harmonies) was shot in one take and it's one of the best vocal performances of any Hollywood film from any time:



Her sister, Roslyn Kind, has a deeper (some might say richer) version of the same voice. I posted her up on Sunday, but I don't think anyone heard her ...

7 comments:

  1. I'm glad that you got some sleep. I don't think that I have slept in a public place since being trapped in Brussels in a freak snow storm. It was a very boring time at the airport, except when some people from New Guinea were trying to get home and had a riot where guns were required. After that I crashed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel like I've been trapped there, too ;-)...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sleep. Escaping into sleep? I have done the latter. Do you feel better after the sleep or do you just feel you need more? Do avoid getting into a cycle where you escape more and more into sleep. I know that's not easy but the antidote is to do some fun and exciting activity and pump up the adrenaline.

    Anywho, I am glad you still have time for your important friends! I do hope you feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gleds you keep telling is what you're 'not' - if you know what you're 'not' you must know what you are and surely that is half the battle? Is it boredom that's making you sleep so much or do you actually feel ill? I hope you are able to get the help you need for whatever is wrong with you m'dear.

    I don't read your German posts because I don't understand them but you go ahead and post in German if that's what you want to do. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the tit posts. This is obviously because I am immature as hell and that word just cracks me up.

    I was very sorry to hear about the death of Sebastian Horsley. I am currently reading his autobiography, and I'm not sure a more interesting, witty man ever existed.

    Love you, Gledds. Have a great weekend. I hope your mum is doing okay. She and you are in my thoughts.

    SB

    ReplyDelete
  6. You German rants should be posted on your Gledwood Vol 3 German Blog. You would get more of the intended audience. I think. Opinion remember it just an asshole.

    I am fasinated with you fasination with birds. You find something to obsess on and you obsess so well. You learn so much about everything because you obsess abou everything.


    Screw Germany and France you are comming to live with me in Hawaii. If its too hot there we will head off to Seattle. Even New York,New York if you want.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well I guess at least turning up at your appointments is a start. I'd like to know why you sleep so much as well. It's a sign of depression in normally active people, I guess with addicts it helps you get through from one point to another. And I doubt another country would look after you as well as Britain frankly. Focus on what you can achieve, set goals by all means but they have to be realistic and achievable. Once you reach one, go for another.

    ReplyDelete

For legal reasons, comments that incite hatred, racism, issue threats or include personal contact information will be deleted.