fitful nights

What a thoroughly unrestful night of sleep. Didn't descend for the longest time, then it was the 20 minutes of shut eye dance where I kept waking unnecessarily every few minutes.

The last 2 hours of spastic sleep were dream infested.

I was on the coast of France for the day, visiting from elsewhere.

I lost my bike in the surf as the tide rolled in (or was it stolen?).

Why the hell would I park my bike on the tide line?

I remember being very worried about my lock rusting.

Oh yes! The pope was in town for a visit. He paraded into a stadium that materialized on the beach, driving right past me. When he reached the far end he had his head chopped off with a toy light sabre. It was some sort of hilarious ruse and most of the stadium seemed in on it, shouting something in unison after the event. Even those that didn't shout seemed to take the incident quite well, going from awe that they were in the pope's presence to acceptance that the funny little man in white was a puppet with a head flying over the pope- mobile.

The more I think on this the more I remember. I saw a video of the exact incident moments before it occurred. People's movements were choreographed and they joined the procession as the pope passed, making sure the stadium was balanced for a big North-Koreanesque huzzah for our little trick! after the decapitation.

But then the show was over, the stadium it took place in disappeared, my bike was still missing, and the last train home long gone. Stuck for the night, I chatted - in French! - with a local at a restaurant. Before long he had invited me to a flat, I assumed his, where I watched TV while he brushed his teeth and left.

Turns out he was tricking me into staying at a home which belonged to another. I found this out when he called drunkenly from a party. I didn't answer a phone, just saw him calling from the party. Like in a movie.

I got out of the place before anyone showed up. My English language movie on the TV, whatever it was, had run its course anyway.

And then as I strolled back for one last look in the waves for my bike, I bumped into some Queen's engineers in school sweaters who were in the town on exchange. I think I was about to ask for a floor to sleep on when the wakeful me decided a few more useless chunks of sleep just wasn't going to cut it.

So just before sleep I awoke to get on with my day.

Here goes.