Normally I don’t have too much trouble falling asleep. Some people might say my work puts them to sleep (got that in before anyone else could), but really as far as I am concerned, I can fall asleep anywhere and at...
Normally I don’t have too much trouble falling asleep. Some people might say my work puts them to sleep (got that in before anyone else could), but really as far as I am concerned, I can fall asleep anywhere and at any time. And I can sound totally awake if I happen to get a 3am phone call, as I often do, for a live tennis report on radio broadcast.
On the flight from London to Singapore I was asleep before we left the gate and all up of the nearly 13 hours flying, I was zonked out for nine. I hasten to add I have never taken a sleeping pill.
Maybe it is catch up time because during a Grand Slam like the US Open or Australian Open I will average about three hours sleep a night for the two weeks. You guys think this is all glamour … ha, ha, ha.
However, on this one night at the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur it was a struggle to fall asleep. I just couldn’t go out. Counting sheep is not an option; I’m not from New Zealand.
It wasn’t because I had not produced a blog for We Are Tennis for about a week and that was playing on my mind (I was struggling to come up with a topic) instead it had everything to do with my room-mate.
Ever heard a chain saw misfiring to start up? What about a gadget that grinds coffee beans? Well then put the two together and you have the snoring of my room-mate.
Sleep was definitely not on the cards for me on this particular night even after a couple of glasses of a lovely 2008 Malbec. I had brought the wine in Buenos Aires after the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas semi-final that saw the Czech Republic defeat Argentina so I uncorked it and accompanied it with some petit fours left in the room by the hotel.
In fact I’ve just poured the third glass of the Malbec and felt inspired to write this blog piece after watching an interview with J.K. Rowling talking about her new book on BBC. Not that I come within a shadow to writing like her, just listening to her made me want to write. Hey, what else did I have to do?
I am still thinking about a topic for the blog but I am also starting to get a bit of a headache. Don’t even suggest it’s the wine, nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with the misfiring chainsaw that has turned into the coffee bean grinder. Oops there was a sudden high pitch in the snore – sounded like a coffee bean just got stuck in the mechanism.
I probably should get the ear plugs out and the eye shades they give you in the toiletries bag on a long haul flight but I just hate wearing them; I find them uncomfortable and anyway on a plane I quite like hearing the hum of the engines, so never use the ear plugs, etc.
The room is on the 34th floor and I am looking across the city and while I watch the lights sparkling like diamonds, sapphires and emeralds against the black sky I am still trying to think what my next topic will be for We Are Tennis.
It is now 12.48am. I can’t even turn on the TV out of consideration for my room-mate, even though he is crashing in MY room. I’m a nice guy. That’s another reason I can’t seem to doze off – I like to have the TV on all night. It doesn’t bother me being on.
I’ve just thought of a topic, maybe about Rafa Nadal, he’s a discussion point at the moment and the question mark on when he might start playing again, but now there is silence in the room, seems like the coffee grinder has switched off.
Better take my cue and try and get to sleep before the chain saw starts up again. Rafa has to wait.
