Sleeping on the Move －移動中に寝ること－

I have just come back from an eighteen day holiday in Scotland.  I will probably write a bit more about Scotland next week. 

But today I want to write about something I discovered during the journey.  I figured out how to get a little sleep during the long trip. 

The trip from Haneda to Glasgow Airport took about 20 hours.  That included a ten hour flight to Dubai, two hours in Dubai Airport, and an eight hour flight to Scotland.  The trip back took about 24 hours.  The return was longer because we had six and a half hours in Dubai Airport. 

I have never really been able to sleep on planes or buses.  So the thought of the long journey is very daunting.  I can’t sleep by reclining my chair.  Nor can I sleep by putting a pillow around my neck and leaning to the side in my chair.  My son stretched out for a while across two seats and slept.  But how can an adult sleep on the plane? 

Well, my wife managed a few hours sleep by extending the food tray in front of her and resting her head on a pillow on the tray.  I tried to copy this trick, but found that I was not small enough to bend my head onto the tray in front of me. 

I was beginning to despair of getting any sleep at all when my wife woke up and suggested a solution.  I was too tall to bend my head onto the tray in front, but I could put my head onto the tray of the seat diagonally in front of me.  In other words, I put the pillow on the tray of the seat in front of my wife.  The three of us could then take turns to shift our positions and get some sleep each. 

The way back was even easier.  For the first time we decided to book one of the lounges in Dubai Airport for four hours.  It was expensive, and the free buffet, bar and games room were completely wasted on me.  But they did have some lovely long couches that I could lie flat on and use to catch a few hours sleep.  Paying hundreds of pounds for a little shut-eye in the middle of my 24 hour journey felt like the best decision I had ever made! 

We returned home to Nerima after 1 o’clock on Tuesday morning.  But I managed to teach two lessons on Tuesday afternoon, and by Thursday morning I was back to normal, with no jet lag.  Thank goodness I have learned to sleep on the move.

 

Vocabulary:

to be daunting – about a future task, seeming difficult to do

[eg., The mountain climb was a little too daunting for me, so I decided to try an easier climb instead.]

to recline a seat – to move a seat back into a sloping position

[eg., Please wait until after take off to recline your seat.]

Shut-eye – an informal English word for sleep

[eg., I am tired.  I need to get a little shut-eye.]

 

What I Did in my Son’s Summer Holidays, chapter 1 －息子の夏休みの思い出 １－

When I was a child, my life was generally directed by various adults round about me.  One adult or another would say, “Put on your shoes,” or, “Finish your vegetables.  People are starving in China!”

I was then expected to put my shoes on, and not to argue that it might be fun to feel the mud through my socks, and not to ask if anyone had been to China recently to check whether the people really were starving there.  Sometimes the directions given by adults seemed a little unreliable or out of date.  Nevertheless, a child isn’t in much of a position to argue for long.  And so I followed the directions.

One such direction that adults gave at regular intervals was to write an essay entitled, “What I Did in my Holidays”.  I was then expected to list various accomplishments or activities which had taken place when the adults at school were not around to direct my behaviour.  I quickly learned that “I sat in my pyjamas all day, playing computer games,” would not get top marks.  “I played board games,” was better.  “I went to the park and played football,” was better still.  And “I went with my family to a museum to learn about dinosaurs,” would have gotten me a gold star.  The adults wanted evidence that we children were spending the holidays doing things, and best of all useful things.

And so I find myself as the father of a seven year old boy, directing his activities during the summer holidays.  His activities no doubt will have to be reported to his teachers when he returns to school, in an essay entitled, “What I Did in my Summer Holidays”.

I feel a certain amount of pressure to provide my son with good copy.  Yet I am still busy teaching English lessons during the day, and my wife is busy working. 

So far, with my help and direction, my son can truthfully write the following:  My father took me to karaoke, and insisted that I clap more loudly when he had finished singing.  My father helped me to write a story called “Sumokles”, about a chubby Japanese hero, inspired by the Greek hero, Herakles.  My father taught me how to make a gimlet, which is a gin and lime cocktail. 

My son cut the lime for the drink you can see in this picture.  He was allowed to smell it, but not taste it. 

There are many more days of summer holiday remaining.  And I am sure many more accomplishments and activities will follow.