They were reading my mind

ok I admit it is not really the nicest angle for a picture, nor is it really flattering for me to present myself like this, but it is after all a thing I had to endure to make sure I can look better.

no , not plastic surgery but research to make me sleep better. I must admit I have never been the most vast sleeper in the world. Waking up a lot at night, kicking in my sleep (sorry for the ones who shared a bed with me) and above all snoring. Even that bad that I sometimes woke up myself or got out of bed with a terrible headache.

The stress of snoring is with me so high that I sometimes even refuse to go to sleep on a plane in order not to upset my fellow travelers. And if I do I can see on their faces after I wake up that they did not really like my soundtrack to the trip, nor did the flight attendants love the fact they received complaints of additional turbulence along the way.

So between Christmas and New Years i finally decided to go the “sleep clinic” to get examined and to find a solution for my uncontrolable humming and singing during my sleep.

Hardly entered the room of the hospital or they started to glue me up with all sensors to track during my sleep every single movement and every single event. I had sensors for:

• heartbeat: two on my chest. removal fear factor: high with all my chest hair
• Eye motion: two; one under the eye; one above … machine went tilt when i started winking at the nurses in the evening
• Leg motion : two , one for each. For the record: having scars of achilles is not a nice spot to have the sensor glued to
• Brain activity: two on the head and two on the face, wonder if they tracked something during the night
• Nose breathing: microphone and oxigen meter below nose
• Lung function: straps around chest and belly
• blood: needle in finger with tape

all of this with wires to a central box they hang on your chest, ready to proof you have trouble sleeping and snor like a bear. The evening came and after having read some articles done some mail and looked at the tele .. time to sleep …

one little problem: with all the sensors, tapes and wires sleeping almost becomes impossible .. so let’s wait and see for the result.

Happy travels

 

Toon

hello again

well, agree i admit: it has been a long time, but you know, just did not feel like it anymore for one big reason: the internet is overrated. I went into an online identity crisis.

I felt the whole world was only a click away, in my mind i travelled the world clicking away on Live Earth, browsing new destination on Lonely Planet or dreaming away on the pictures on Flickr of people who actually went to the place i’m dreaming of. Or just even bringing up memories of the gang in Amsterdam, feeling the vibrant buzz again of a team of digital freaks changing the world about almost 10 years now … meeting up with friends in a virtual space, not even dressing up for the occasion.

The texts we create, the mails we write , the images we see; they all become faster, shorter , snappier all on the soundtrack of clicks and sounds of phones and computers …

Not that i think or dream that we will become intelligent joysticks or that we get born with USB slots for downloading all information and projecting the environment we would like to be in; but still: i just had enough for a couple of months: i gave priority to walking over sitting.

My leg is back alright and my arms are doing fine; so i walk to the newsstand from time to time and buy myself a newspaper and use my arms to fold it open and start reading it over a cup of coffee. My legs bring me to the bistro where i meet up with friends for the coffe we are so used of having on saturday market day ….

I even took the time to go and see some art this week-end with my partner in real life , without exploring it first on the web to make sure we really just went without prior visions.

although we still do not have enough time to do everything, i feel i can enjoy some little things more because the bits and bytes are not giving me the false sense of proximity … a proximity i prefer to be physically close so i can touch, feel and hear the breathing …

So for 2009 my slogan is going to be : BALANCE the walking and the sitting with for me a superiority of walking over sitting …

Happy travels in 2009

 

Toon and family