Jet lag is a cruel mistress not content to be avoided

[pseydtonne]

It's six Sunday morning here in downtown Sydney. I have been awake since four-thirty.

Every morning I had been waking up at six on the dot because my body would just say "you're not sleeping anymore". I decided to go to bed around ten so that I would at least get a full night's sleep if I could not control the timing. My body rebelled with this salvo.

Understand that I feel tired. I don't feel like falling over but I do not feel properly functional. I've showered and shaved and I'm sitting in my pajama bottoms and a tee shirt in the lobby of the hostel.

By the way, the pajama bottoms were Gigi's idea. She gave me a great list of long-haul flying ideas based on her life back and forth from Queens to Cairo. I was the most skeptical of wearing an article of clothing I'd never entertain at home. Instead these checkered flannel beauties are keeping me warm in a nation devoid of central heating.

This nation, or at least this part of the city, is also devoid of sane prices for digital cameras. The LCD screen on my three year old Sony camera (also my last gift from working at Comcast) broke during the flight. I probably buried it too deep in my rucksack. Now I need to buy a digital camera where the prices suck. Normally this is a decision I'd stall about for months and study price trends at MicroCenter.

I have no such options right now. Anyone that could offer brand or feature ideas when I want to keep this on the point-and-shoot level would be my special tingly friend. Then again, these are the prices I'm seeing (right now aud6.00 is usd 5.00). If I have to pay that much, I'm tempted to put in the extra hundred for a proper digital SLR. The Canon Powershot S3 is aud600 (usd500) whereas MicroCenter back home has it for $350. It's very tempting, you know. If that's a bad idea (I'm looking in the direction of shutterbugs moominmolly and mangosteen), please let me know soon.

But yeah, for the first time in a long one I cannot sleep correctly. Sydney has been miserable torrential rain for three days and none of the east coast will see the sun for a while. Each day feels like the street scenes in Blade Runner. Since the actual streets getting rained on are the neighborhood used in The Matrix, I feel like the Matrix has me and then got busted.

I want to see the Southern Cross and the rest of the stars so badly. Instead I see my rain coat. I'm told I can see stars in the outback or in the Blue Mountains, so I'm renting a car (I have to practice saying "hire a car" because I'm tired of getting the look from everyone) and heading around my preferred way.

It's too expensive to fly to the west coast without preparation, so I'm going to Melbourne soon enough (probably Wednesday).

Since all of us hostelers are tired of the rain, I've been using the time to practice my French. There are plenty of friendly backpackers from France and Belgium who are willing to help and it's been good. I have to let go of my fear of screwing up my grammar.

I need sunlight and there isn't any here. That's bumming me out and keeping me from a good sleep. Still, it's a fascinating city...

-nice to have the lobby to myself, Dante

Comments

[tckma.livejournal.com]

I hate that. My last digital camera broke halfway through my cross-country trip. I took a picture at the top of Monarch Pass and heard an explosion and a sizzle from my flash. I couldn't get the camera to turn on again no matter what I did. Fortunately, the memory card was intact, and I didn't lose any of the pictures I'd already taken... but for the rest of the trip I ended up buying one-time-use 35mm cameras at pricey tourist traps. Annoying.

Can you maybe buy one online? Sure the shipping charges would be outrageous, but they might be less than buying one there.

Still, a digital camera is something I want to look at, to touch, to try... before buying it.