Nathan and the 24-Hour City People

Today is one of those days that make me wish I had the ability to funtion happily on two hours sleep.

For those of you not following the plot, I've just spent a few weeks backin the Old Country with my family. On one occaision I went for an evening shower at 21:45 and was suprised to find the house outside my room was dark and silent. The sun goes down, country folk go to sleep. A lot of my time between waking up and going to sleep was spent in such activities as "Reading word documents I wrote when I was 15" and "Sim City 3000". I suppose the view is nice there, but I'm slowly coming to the realisation that the country is somewhere I need to visit but don't want to live.

The City, though, is always buzzing with life. If I decide I want a curry, I go and get one. If my curiosity hits on Adam von Trott zu Solz, then I can just go and find out about him. Even as I type I'm in a fluorescent-lit room with no windows, giving a kind of late-night 24-hour service feel to the air.

There is a downside, though.

Right now:

I need to email the mentee I've been negelecting

I want to research my options for summer work

I have to find out when my upcoming exams are

I'm confirming that I can lead a guided tour of Oxford

I'm carrying around cheques that need to be cashed

I'm getting brusque phone calls asking me to interview

I want to finish the Optics problem set I've been working on for three days

My CD has just finished, which makes me realsie how long I've already been sat at this computer.

In light of all that, you might ask why I'm still here, tapping away at Blogger. Well, on some level, perhaps it's because this feels like work. I'm one of those people who does sometimes react to having lots of work by writing down everything that needs doing, looking at the list and saying "Wow, that's a lot of stuff" before going to lunch.

Well, it's 13:06, which means it's time for me to stop talking at you and grind out a missive.

Song in my head: "Be Mine" by REM

I promise these will get better as term progresses, my laptop comes back from the fixers, I mature as a person etc.