aDrenais' Book of Shadows

It's too bloody cold to sleep.

I remember snorting when seniors told me that it gets really cold in Bahrain in winter. Those conversations took place in the middle of summer, when 40 deg celsius was considered mild weather, so pardon me if I did not take them very seriously. It's 4.45a.m. now, I've been back since 3a.m. from flight, but I refuse to sleep because there'd be too much shivering involved.

I've never been a winter person. The only place I've stayed for an extended period of time during winter is Xiamen, and that was ok because it belongs to the southern part of China where temperatures don't drop as drastically as they do in the north. Furthermore, I was officially there as a student, but in reality all I had to do all day was to shop and surf the Internet, so there wasn't any exertion on my part. Even when I go to wintry places like London and Switzerland with my family on holidays, we were tourists and didn't have to do much more than snap pictures and take in the sights. Even then, I was really grumpy on most of those trips, because I was too cold to enjoy the holiday properly.

But this. Having to go about my daily affairs in a normal fashion under winter conditions; it's killing me. I mean, I have to wake up at 5a.m. sometimes for work, and taking a shower at that time is no joke! The best part is that the a/c in my apartment doesn't double up as a heater. What's more, the a/c is not mounted onto the wall properly, so that the cold seeps in through the gaps between the a/c and the wall, permeating every corner of my room. I shiver in my sleep so much that I wake up sore (It may well be from the heavy comforters I pile onto myself, I can't tell). My friend told me I probably have this seasonal disorder where I get depressed by the cold. Damn right I do.

So now I'm cold and miserable, and cannot curl up in ball and hibernate because I have to work. Every so often I ask myself why am I putting myself through this shit, and then I remember: because I have nothing to show for my time here, yet. I haven't been to the nearby countries, I haven't saved much (at all, actually), I haven't accomplished what I want to do here. Keeping these in mind get me through work, but it doesn't make the cold go away. Brr.

Turning 24
The gang I hang out with in Bahrain was super wu-sim, and came over to my place with a cake to celebrate. It's funny how I get so much more excited about other people's birthdays than my own, maybe because we celebrated their birthdays in the summer *disgruntled*. I'm still considering posting the pictures taken during the celebration, because I was depressed and it showed. I was photographed in my pjs, swaddled up in a woolly jumper, and had hideous uncombed hair.

And thereby ending another year of my life on an all-time low. Insyallah next year's birthday will be in a better place, with better prospects, and in a warmer country.