I always look forward to ranting/general spilling, although today I am exceedingly tired and feel at a loss for words.
Why am I tired? Skydiving. It owns, a lot. However, the drop-zone that I am currently jumping from is in the little Somerset town of Dunkeswell which is about 2 hours away or so, in my little Polo through the Forest of Dean, Wye Valley, Wales and across the Severn Bridge. Thus, there at a good time, I have to get out of bed at 5:30 am before driving for a very long time and doing very physically demanding skydiving (I say ‘have to’, although of course I don’t, but I really enjoy doing it and I’m eager to get as experienced as possible as quickly as possible). As a result, I am very tired.
The weather! Oh, the weather! Let me tell you about that! For a start, it’s been raining a lot. When I arrived at the drop zone today it was raining, and so I jumped off the first lift of the day which I can only assume was the only lift of the day (it rained and I left after a few hours). So, I’m tired. But, my skydive: yeah, I owned at it. BUT! It was my first time with my new goggles and foolish me didn’t tighten them very well so once I reached terminal velocity of about 120mph, I found my goggles sliding up my face and cloud trying to fly into my eyes. But its ok, because it handled it and fixed it all 
I shant bore with the details on HOW I managed to fix my goggles and look at my alitmeter whilst free-falling through a cloud at 120mph above Somerset. It’s an interesting tale for another day.
I got my first ever malfunction!
I was ever so excited. It was only a line-twist malfunction though - I’ve been trying to find a photo of one, but I cant find one, so just imagine flying a kite, but you pass the toggles between your hands until the lines between the kite and the handles and twisted, and then imagine thats on a parachute and you’re suspended from it. It’s not a terribly dangerous problem (provided you know what to do, which I did and anyone could probably work out if given time anyway) and takes about three seconds to solve, but I still feel some achievement for being faced with a slight malfunction and fixing it, even though it didn’t require the most extreme measure of cutting away the main canopy and releasing the reverse parachute (which I’ve rather not ever have to do, to be perfectly honest).
insomnia? It truely is the worst thing ever. The second worst thing ever is hayfever and although that occaisionally brings me worse short-term suffering, I KNOW that that is just a pollen allergy, but what the hell is insomnia? Am I too distracted to sleep? Is the off-switch in my brain broken? Am I too good for sleeping? Or am I too desperate for just ONE good-night sleep that I am, in a way, ‘fumbling’ to grasp it and thus letting it slip like a bar of soap in the shower.
I’m always tired. Sometimes it’s a real problem because I’m cranky and everything will annoy me, I can’t function or concentrate, but I’m always atleast mildly tired and havent felt ‘rested’ since before mid-ish Year 9 and it’s really being rather a problem for me. Even where I am able to sleep in late, and thus feel more relaxed and can get to sleep before entering my ‘ARG WHY CANT I SLEEP TONIGHT?’ stage, something always wakes me up and I feel uncomfortable sleeping for too long during the day, and so can’t even sleep then. I can remember ye olde days of waking up and thinking ‘I feel refreshed’ and miss them. The closest I get to it is with these chinese herbal things that, although only seem to have a 30% chance of working (based on me only having taken 10, and only 3 of them ‘working’), atleast get me to sleep at a reasonable hour - but I don’t dream with them, and thus it doesnt feel like a satisfying sleep.
If anyone ever finds an almighty sleep-aid to cure insomnia, give me a bell.
Rob Sibbet.
When I have bouts of insomnia, SleepRite works great for me. You can get 7 day free sample here.