phik

Lately I’ve been on Beijing time, so unless I have a particular need to hear my cell phone or alarm clock, I go to sleep around 05h00 with a blindfold and earplugs. This is excellent. In my little sensory-deprivation chamber I sleep like a baby.

But there’s one problem with this plan, I discovered this morning: I can’t hear Simon throw up, as he does once a month or so.

The sound of Simon throwing up is hardwired directly into the most core, instinctive centres of my brain. It is my terror alert siren and I will immediately awaken from the deepest of sleep to react to this new threat. If he’s making noise below the foot of the bed, where I know there to be a rug, I will leap across the bed and, carefully balanced with half of my body stretching off the edge, force Simon onto the easily-cleaned hardwood. Such are the times in which we live.

With the earplugs in, I awake refreshed and energized for a new day, then step in it.