Sylvia's Journal

I have been up since 3:30 AM, drinking green tea that reminds me of South-East Asia. Getting up that early was not difficult since I went to bed at about 4:30 PM yesterday afternoon with a raging headache and nausea that had plagued me all day, leading to an early dismissal from work. It is not because of the spiders I ate, these have long been removed from my system but because of something else that is out of whack. My annual physical later today may reveal the cause if it is not simply my re-entry into Eastern Standard Time.

I am slowly reducing the 12 hour gap between waking and sleeping in Cambodia and in America, but last night set me back by a few hours. I guess there were just too many adjustments to make: diet, temperature, humidity, work hours and sleep. I hope that my body will store all these adjustments for the future, making next returns a little easier.

Before the headache got so bad that I started to look cross-eyed I was able to put in some early morning quality writing time in the office that was deserted for my first few hours there. But at noon time I was rubbing my forehead so much that I couldn’t type anymore. Without any obligations to others in meetings or scheduled conversations there was nothing to keep me at work and I drove home.

Back in Manchester Axel and I went for a brisk walk to Singing Beach with Chicha leashed on her choke collar (strict instructions from Tessa and Steve). It was a beautiful but very cold day; even the sea water was frozen on the rocks, looking like translucent frosting on cupcakes. The walk interrupted the headache for awhile. It came back when I settled in on the couch to watch a movie, the only thing I felt able to do. Five minutes into the movie I gave up on that as well and retired to bed, to emerge 11 hours later, sans headache, at least for now.