EARTHQUAKE

If asked, those who know me will confess that one of my strangest habits during term time is setting my alarm clock for silly times in the morning. Whenever Elle comes over, its a comedy of sirens, as i have the term time alarm (muffled, as now it's stuffed in my drawer), followed by a medication-reminder alarm a couple of hours later.

The truth be told, the alarm is only half of a strange habit.

I come from a family ripe with sleep afflictions; my dad snores like a moose - if I'm quiet enough in my room I can hear him snoring in his. While my mother doesn't snore, her own problem could be deemed worse - she clicks and sometimes has violent nightmares, which got so bad at one point that she considered sleeping in the bathroom so as not to injure my defenseless dad.

Up until recently, I thought that I had escaped the tradition, but appparently not, for now I know for sure that I hallucinate.

It all started off with stupid small things, like hearing someone shouting me and getting up for breakfast at 4am. Then it moved on to physical things, like shaking - when the earthquake hit, I passed it off as something imaginary. Recently, I was half asleep and the entire room started shaking - I was in two minds whether to get out of bed and wake Elle up or stay where I was.

Thinking about it - it's a good job it wasn't real, I'm not sure how I would have coped during an earthquake with Carley next door.

Since her lessons are over and her exams are almost finished, Chris has been here more than usual. It has also been a time of extreme hot weather. Weather that breeds agitation.

Standing in the kitchen recently making myself some noodles, i was alarmed by the arrival of the pair - Carley in a violet dress and silver kitten heels. Chris in a tracksuit. She shrieked her greeting and proceeded to limp over to a chair, moaning about the weather and pouting at Chris to get her some juice from the fridge easily four meters away from me.

He refused, but his reason was, 'I want the kitchen to be free.'

I'm not sure which was worse, that or Carley's reply of 'But it IS free!'