TIRED

I have had 14 hours of sleep in the last 64. I am tired. I am very tired. I am so tired I can't even go to sleep.

On Friday night I went to a sleepover at my friend's house with a bunch of other friends. We had cake and chocolate and a very nice time. After sitting in her living room for hours talking about random stuff we finally decided to go to bed, and I got to sleep at about 2am.

I had to wake up and get up at 7am for work. I was knackered, and having to run back to the house to retrieve my phone then lurching wheezily to the bus because I was terrified I was going to miss it and then having to wait another 10 minutes anyway didn't help.

So, work for 4 hours (not too bad, you might think. 4 hours is a looooonng time when all you can think about it going home and having a nap) and then home for lunch. 'A NAP!' I thought naively. Oh no. I had to ring up the stupid holiday company to ask if we could add the flaky friend to the booking (she has since ONCE AGAIN said she can't go. AGAIN).

And THEN I had to start packing for a scout camp and night hike. I couldn't find anything I needed so that took a while and some running up and down the ladder into the loft. After walking with all my stuff (including an extra sleeping bag for the same birthday girl) to the Scout Hall, I was informed we were going to be dropped off in Foxdale from where we would make our way back to Ballasalla.

It's only about 6 miles, but we were walking over South Barrule (if not a mountain, then a very big hill) in the dark, it was very windy and extremely cold, and it was so foggy we could hardly see the ground we were trying to walk on even with our headtorches. The leader made us try and find a bearing with maps and compasses, and we followed it for a while, but then gave up and just headed in the general direction we though the cairn on the top was.

Eventually, we stumbled across the path that led down the other side of South Barrule and followed it down to the road. Just before the gate, I fell down a gully into a puddle (luckily not hurting myself). After pausing for a bit on the road to eat carrot sticks, we carried on into the night.

After road-walking for a while we got to a very muddy path that would lead us back to civilisation. Quite a few times we had to gingerly grab onto barbed wire to help us down treacherous slopes, but we made it with no injuries. We walked back through Silverdale, then finally arrived at the Scout Hut, aching, muddy, and very, very cold.

We had a few lukewarm pizzas (this was now midnight), then the leader suggested we play a game of cards, and looked to everyone for ideas. No-one said anything, so I (who knows why?) suggested a game which, when played, went down like a... not very welcome thing. It got progressively more awkward when there were just two people left playing and it was clear that they both wanted to stop but it just kept going and going and everyone was bored watching it. I went to bed when they finished.

I should be used to it by now, but sleeping on the floor in just pyjamas and a sleeping bag is very uncomfortable. I got to sleep about 1am, but amazingly managed to stay that way until 7 hours later. Dressed, breakfast, awkward silences with people I don't know, then a scavenger hunt. Woo. I eventually went home at 11:45am.

I went online for a little bit, then had a BLESSED NAP which only lasted for 2 hours but was nonetheless a gift from the gods. Flobbed around the house for the rest of the day, and am now here.

My eyelids are actually drooping quite a bit after writing that, so I'm going to try and get some sleep.